But running would create noise. It would disturb wolves, owls, mice; the forest would be aware of our presence and the Elvens would as well. We were also beyond exhausted, and even jogging would take an incredible toll.
A sharp crack of wood rang out from a distance of about two hundred yards in front of us. Thayer and I immediately sunk down to the ground, becoming one with the floor of snow, needles, and leaves that we had been swimming through like silent sharks.
“Shut up, eh?” an Elven voice hissed from the same spot. I signaled to Thayer and we began to creep forward.
“We’ve lost them. No sign or track for three days. They are halfway to Zetirma by now,” another voice said in annoyance. My teeth gritted and muscles tensed at the timbre of their voices. It would be a shame that I wouldn’t be able to make them scream as I killed them.
“You can relax all you wish, but I’ll feel safe when I am back home, drinking some wine and warming my loins deep in my favorite woman. Until then, grab that fucking piece of firewood and stay aware.” The voice was an urgent whisper, filled with fear.
Thayer and I were close now and through the thick shrubbery we could see the two Elvens carefully sorting through saplings and gathering other wood in a small clearing. They performed their tasks without speaking anymore and they frequently looked over their shoulders to ensure their partner was still working. They must have taken our threat seriously. It was too bad that their single mistake would cost them everything. But that was how battle worked.
Cutting someone across the throat could almost never be done silently. Death came too slowly, giving them a chance to gargle out a warning. I preferred ripping into the brain with something sharp and pointy, as the first Elven learned when he felt my hand grab the side of his jaw from inside his mouth and rip his face toward me. The point of my dagger stabbed through his eye socket and into the soft organ beneath the skull. Then the asshole felt nothing.
Thayer was more flamboyant than I. In a swift movement he decapitated the other Elven, then sheathed his sword and caught the head and corpse before it toppled to the ground.
The Elvens ran tall and slim. Their boots fit too small, but we were able to squeeze into their fur-trimmed leather coats and pants. They also carried small blocks of flint, curved long swords, small saws, and a hand axe. It took us less than a minute to re-outfit ourselves and continue on the path northward.
I was worried that we might run into the larger group, but as we continued for an hour we didn’t see any sign of them or any recently made trails. After the second hour of travel, Thayer tapped me on the back and gave me a big smile.
“I think we’ve lost them, Brother,” he whispered and I nodded.
Then we heard howls from behind us. It wasn’t wolves, it was the sound of the Elven’s tracking dogs.
“Shit!” we both said at once before we ran. Our unclad feet left deep and easily traceable gouges in the needles and mud of the forest floor, but at this point we didn't care.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have killed those two assholes?” I gasped in between leaps across a small set of boulders.
“Fuck it! I like running anyway! I feel free!” Thayer yelled.
His jubilation did not stop the howls behind us from growing oppressively louder. We could outrun Elvens or dogs if we were in optimal condition, but we had gone weeks without consistent food or rest, stressed physically and mentally by their pursuit. Even if we fell into their hands, we had led the last of the trackers away from our main camp. The belief that our kin could evade capture and live out their lives in freedom was enough for us, if we were to die, we would die at peace knowing they lived.
We ran until the sun came up again, spraying the entire world with a fresh coat of amber blood in its dawn glow.
“Throw me that axe, Brother!” Thayer yelled. “I can’t run anymore. I’ll hold them off for a bit. You keep moving.” The tone of his voice sounded hopeless.
“Fuck you! You’ll stop running when I say so!” I shouted back at him with a smile on my face.
“You just don’t want to die alone! I always knew you were afraid of something!” He laughed and picked up the pace.
“I just really like this axe. I’m going to bury it in one of them if they catch up to us.” This got another laugh from my friend.
We were animals now, some sort of bizarre cross of human, deer, squirrel, and bird. Our feet only seemed to touch the ground every twenty yards, the rest of the time we spent in the air, bouncing off trees, sliding across old snow, or scrambling over boulders.
We would not be able to keep it up for much longer, and I had no plan besides running. Maybe the situation was hopeless. We should turn around and kill as many as we could before they ended us. I did not voice my fears, so we continued to run.
Hours later, the sun was out in full glory. It had snowed weeks ago and what was left of the pure whiteness melted from the top of the trees, making the branches and forest floor glitter with the sun’s rays.
We emerged from the thick canopy into grassy hills that were sprinkled with granite monoliths. I could see that the slopes led up a few miles to a canyon that ascended to a mountain range.
“We’ll lose them in the canyons. The dogs can’t climb and I’m sure there will be a network of caves.”
“What is it with you and caves, Brother?” Thayer laughed as he sprinted ahead of me. I didn't know how we still managed to run. Every joint in my body screamed and all of my muscles just wanted to quit.
I heard the arrow cut through the air before it hit him in the back of the left leg. He went down in a tumble of limbs but didn’t make a noise. He was too well trained.
I spun around and dove to my left proactively, the missile intended for me passed harmlessly overhead. How the fuck did they get so close? Another arrow screamed at me from the tree line one hundred yards behind us, but I managed to knock it out of the way before it went through my chest.
“We’ve been expecting you, human,” a voice called from where the arrow originated. “Release your weapons. We aren’t interested in killing you.” Figures emerged from behind the trees. There were a dozen of the bastards, and half held arrows notched and aimed at me. I looked to where Thayer had fallen and saw that he had crawled behind a small boulder to give himself cover.
“Poison,” he mouthed to me silently, pointing to the arrowhead he had removed from his leg. There wasn’t anything strong enough to kill us, but we could be rendered unconscious with what would end normal humans.
“We don’t want to do this the hard way. You already walked into our trap here. Why don’t you lay down your weapons, we’ll give you food and warmer clothing, maybe even some wine?” I didn’t recognize the Elven woman that addressed me. She had hair the color of gold and skin tanned by many days in the sun.
The hand axe I took from the other Elvens was a bit awkward to throw, but it still sunk into her beautiful face with a satisfying thud that smashed her skull in a showering of bone, blood, hair, and eyeballs. She managed to get a scream out, which impressed me, but then the damage done to her brain by the axe’s blade cut off the howl.
Her friends were shocked by my sudden movement, but that lasted a fraction of a second before they released their arrows. I threw myself to the ground in an attempt to sink into the long grass. I rolled left, toward Thayer, who found the situation extremely funny, and laughed like I’d just been kicked in the balls.
Somehow, no arrow found me. I made it behind the boulder that hid Thayer. We got to live another thirty seconds.
“Good show, Brother.” His words were slurring, and he struggled to hold his head up from his broad chest. “Let’s fight it out.” His skull fell forward and then he picked it up again. I heard the Elvens dashing up the hill toward, us but Thayer’s eyes glazed over like a frozen lake.
“Wake up!” I yelled in his ear. He grunted and his eyes rolled back into his skull.
I sighed. We had talked about this before we escaped from Iolarathe's lands, w
hat would happen if we were ever trapped and certain there was no escape.
We wouldn’t be slaves again.
I pulled my dagger and put it to my friend’s neck. I only had a few seconds to end his life and then mine. We had agreed that this was what we wanted. This would be our ultimate escape. But now that I held the blade, I couldn’t stop my hand from shaking. I didn’t want him to be enslaved, but I couldn’t find the strength to drive the point into his neck.
I couldn’t kill my friend.
He’d be mad at me. He’d curse my memory. They would murder me and enslave him again. The thoughts bounced around in my head as I prepared to break my promise. I drew my sword with my left hand, keeping the dagger in my right. I could probably kill four of them.
Maybe.
Maybe if I was lucky, they would accidently kill me and I would never have to explain to Thayer that I broke at the last second and couldn’t fulfill my commitment.
An explosion knocked me down with such force that I dropped my weapons. My ears rang and I tasted burnt air for a few seconds. These assholes were throwing serious magical power at us. Fire and Wind users were rare amongst Elvens. Only a few of the bastards could harness the power effectively enough not to kill themselves. We must have been more important than I thought.
Another explosion erupted, and even though my ears rang, I could tell it was farther away, down the slope, toward the Elvens. I grabbed my sword and dagger, thinking that one of the fuckers must have made a mistake and turned himself into charcoal. I dashed around the boulder and sprinted through the smoke, and down the field toward them.
But my enemies were no more.
Instead, a small old man stood in the clearing. His head did not even reach my shoulder, he was thin and withered, with the gaunt yet fierce look of the long malnourished. He was human, scraggly gray hair hung past his shoulders. His beard had small beads made of bone stitched into the gray strands. His arms and body still crackled with energy.
“Hello my young friend,” he said as I stopped in front of him, sliding on the wet grass as my brain grappled for clarity. Who was this man? I was not aware of any humans, save the ones who had joined us, who were not living in slavery. Slaves rarely survived long enough to grow this old.
We eyed each other carefully for a few seconds. The Elvens resembled burnt leaves. Even their swords were twisted by the heat of what this human seemed to have done to them.
“Hello,” I squeaked out.
“I’d shake your hand and introduce myself, but you seem to have weapons in them,” he said as he eyed me mischievously.
I considered for a moment and then realized he could have easily done to me what he did to the dozen Elvens baking on the surrounding ground. I sheathed my sword and dagger and held out my hand.
“Thank you for rescuing us. I’m Kaiyer; my friend taking a nap behind the boulder is Thayer.” I smiled as the older man clasped my wrist. His grip was firm.
“Ah, the Gods used to say that lightning and wood don’t mix, and maybe they are right with you two. At least for your enemies it seems.” The old man’s lips broke into a smile that bent his face like soft clay. His grin almost went from ear to ear and reminded me of a monkey I had once seen.
“I’m not so sure about lightning and wood mixing, but we would have surely been captured without your help, friend. Thank you again.” I had heard of Gods. The Elvens worshiped them, but forbade their slaves from learning about them. “Let’s go see to your companion. If you will carry him, I have a home a few miles through the canyons. You can both rest there."
“You are too kind,” I said. My voice cracked a little with relief. I shouldn’t have been so trusting, but the man had saved us, and seemed sincere. We went back to Thayer and I checked his pulse. He was still alive, although his heart beat very slowly.
“He’ll be fine I am sure,” the old man said as I examined my friend. “You both seem to be capable warriors.”
“We are more like animals, forever hunted, with no freedom. They will probably send more trackers. Are you sure you want us to come to your home?” I spoke the words without even thinking, and instantly regretted it. I might have just talked myself out of a fire and warm meal.
“Everyone is running from something, Kaiyer,” the old man smiled again and laughed. It sounded like a bird’s laugh. “Let’s go. I’m guessing you’re hungry and thirsty. It has been a while since I have had guests and I am eager to entertain!” He skipped through the grass up the hill and I felt my legs burn keeping pace while Thayer hung over my shoulder.
“How did you kill them?” I asked after we traveled in silence for ten minutes.
“I used magic.”
“Fire and Wind?” I said in amazement.
“Of course!” He turned back at me with a dry chuckle. “Elvens aren’t the only ones who can use all the Elements. In fact, there are many secrets that even Elvens don’t know.”
“Like what?” I gasped out. Partially in surprise and partially because I had to climb up a steep bed of rocks carrying Thayer.
“Maybe I can teach you. If you are interested, of course.” The old monkey man leaped impossibly high, up a twenty-foot cliff face, and chuckled at me. "It would be very interesting teaching you things. Quite ironic, actually," he muttered loud enough for me to hear. It made little sense to me so I decided not to reply.
“Almost there. Try to keep up, Son of Lightning,” he heckled me from ledge above. His chittering sounded like a laughing squirrel.
I grabbed the cliff wall and scaled it with a few grunts and curses. The task was difficult now, but it would have been impossible to even imagine before the Elvens changed me. Thayer was shorter than I, but he was wider and loaded with more muscle mass. I guessed he outweighed me by thirty pounds.
“You haven't told me your name,” I panted after I reached the top. Our savior bounced far ahead of me now and I had to sprint to catch him. The movement jarred Thayer violently on my shoulder and he let out a groan.
The small monkey man didn’t answer my request until we made it to his cave; it was actually a network of corridors dug deep into the mountains. The place was a maze stuffed with books, maps, weapons, mushroom gardens, and room to train.
“My name is Entas,” he said, after I had settled down next to a fire and he handed me a steaming cup of spicy soup. “I’m glad that you made it here, Kaiyer.”
“Me too.” I smiled back to him.
Chapter 17-Kaiyer
“You look like you are sleeping with your eyes open, Skinny,” Greykin whispered, ripping me from my memories.
“I was thinking about the past.” My voice choked a bit
“Are you feeling okay?” Beltor asked with concern.
“I’m fine.” I wiped my eyes. I had cried a few months ago when I remembered how Iolarathe killed my family. These were completely different tears now.
They stared at me for a few seconds, trying to weigh my words against the tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Sometimes I remember parts of my past life.” I smiled at them, remembering my surrogate father. I had learned much from the strange and brilliant old man. Some of which was slowly trickling into my memory and muscles. One fact I was certain of: before I met Entas, I felt weak, even though I could use the Earth magic. The recollections after Entas had trained me showed me a different version of myself. More powerful and confident.
“Anything that can help us right now? Maybe some sort of magic word? One that will kill all the Ancients within a mile would be useful.” Greykin smirked.
I laughed a bit, despite the disparity of our situation: Sitting in a large dark cell underneath Castle Nia and waiting for Nanos to deliver on his promise didn’t create a pleasant sensation in my stomach. This felt wrong. I didn’t like Jessmei's brother and I didn’t trust him. If he wasn’t a prisoner in his own home and fearing for his life, I wouldn’t have believed he would help us.
“I wish I could have grabbed the swords from my room,” I said
regretfully. I would have also liked some new clothes. I was still wearing the attire that the duke had provided me. They were slightly better than the loose training clothes I wore when Nia had been attacked, but only because they didn’t smell like two months’ worth of blood and sweat. The clothes the king had made for me were the finest garments I recalled ever owning, and while they wouldn’t solve our current problem, I did miss them.
“Don’t worry, Skinny. I shall protect you from the rats that live down here. I believe that I saw one that outweighed you by a few dozen pounds.” Greykin chuckled and slapped me on the back. The sound bounced off the dark stone walls, passed through the slimy bars of the cell and fled down the long hallways of the dungeon.
“Careful!” Beltor hissed. The duke was probably twenty years younger than the warrior, but when he spoke the axe man listened and obeyed with a quick nod and a whispered apology.
I still didn't understand the concept of royalty. I was accustomed to a life where the strongest and most capable was in command. Somehow that practice became diluted, twisted, and misshaped into a society where someone’s value was attached to their bloodline. It wasn’t even that I believed that the king, his brother, or Nadea lacked the ability to lead this world, but it was strange that Greykin would follow the duke without question, and would do the same to Nanos now that his father was dead and the young man was king.
Perhaps the Old Bear saw Beltor command an army, make wise decisions, deal with failures, and teach his followers. Those steps seemed imperative when creating a strong bond of trust and loyalty with those you lead in battle.
“Do you believe Nadea is down here?” I whispered to the duke.
“Yes. I have to believe,” Beltor said as he scratched absently at his own uniform.
“You have to believe?” I asked.
“Yes. What other option is there? She is either here in the castle as Nanos promised, or she is dead. I refuse to consider that she is dead.” His voice was full of conviction, like he was speaking of the sun rising the next morning.
The Destroyer Book 2 Page 24
