by Brad Clark
“Yes you did,” Conner said. “And Tarcious isn’t even your brother!”
Hargon’s head snapped up. “What?”
“Glaerion told me. He said you couldn’t be blood brothers with him because you can’t use magic.”
“But I can! I healed you, brought you back from the dead. I’ve done it since I was a child!”
“Conner is right,” Glaerion said. “The blood of mages passes down from father to son, or mother to daughter. The blood line of the emperor of Taran has the ability to cast spells, which your brother clearly has the capabilities to do. But your power is not magic. It is a skill given to you by the Creator himself. You may have the same mother, but you surely have a different father.”
“This makes no sense. I was the oldest. My earliest memories are with my father and mother.”
“What matters is that it was not you who attacked South Karmon,” Conner said. “You cannot blame yourself for what Tarcious did, or who he was. But you can help us fight back and figure out a way to defeat these creatures. You were born and raised to be an emperor. Now it’s time to act like one.”
“I was born and raised in opulence and luxury,” Hargon countered. “I had servants to do my every bidding and teams of advisors to tell me what to do. I offer nothing.”
“You offer a much needed skill. There will be more bloodshed in the coming days and weeks. The ability to heal the injured, or even the dead, is what you can offer. We will need your help. That is what you can live for.”
Emotion was overwhelming Hargon and he knew that if he tried to speak, that emotion would express itself in tears and possibly sobbing. He bit his lip and took a deep breath to help keep himself in check.
Elissa looked over at Glaerion, who was staring at his boots, and asked, “What about you, Glaerion? What do you have to live for?”
The elf looked around, seeing that everyone was looking at him. Any other time, he would have gotten angry, but not this time. He was feeling something he hadn’t felt in thousands of years. His words came out soft and slowly, in a tone of voice unlike any of them had heard before. There was no anger or bitterness, only sadness.
“For five thousand years,” he said. “I have hated humans for the wars that they brought to my people. But being here, being among you, I have realized that I had forgotten that humans can be good. Are good. Humans may be stupid, emotional beings, but they are not all bad.” He turned to Conner and Elissa, and his voice cracked. “And I see the two of you, loving one another the way you do, and I realize that I have something to live for that I have missed for many, many years. I have a wife that I must live for. I love her. I have tried not to, tried to hide my emotions because it was emotion that brought the worst out of humans. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I need to find that love again.”
A tear fell down his cheek and he laughed. “I have not cried in five thousand years, since we left in our ships for exile. I will live for my wife, until I see her again. I only hope that when she looks upon me, she looks like you, Elissa, look upon Conner.”
Conner stepped forward and put a hand on Glaerion’s shoulder and smiled.
Glaerion looked at the hand and said, with a smile, “I cannot believe I am letting a human touch me.”
Conner turned back to the others, and looked at each one in turn. “We all have something to live for and something to fight for. Not just our own lives, but the lives of every man, and every elf on the earth. I don’t know what to do or how to fight back. The world as we know it may come to an end. If those creatures of the Deceiver can level our city in one night, then can we not believe that they could lay waste to an entire kingdom in just a few days?”
He looked at Glaerion and asked him, “You know about the Deceiver. What can we do to fight him? To return his creatures back to where they came from?”
Glaerion shook his head. “That I do not know. There are others of my kind, including our ruler, King Illichian, who have lived much longer than me, are wiser than me, and may know the answer to that. I must return to him and tell him all that has transpired. But…” He let his words trail off.
“But what?”
“I am not alone in my feelings towards humans. There is not an elf alive that would have good feelings towards humans and many of them hold hatred towards your kind as I have. They would be happy to see your cities and your kingdoms crumble. But they must know that this threat is not just towards you, but towards the entire world. One of you should come with me, back to my people, and meet with the elders of the council and King Illichian. If they see you face to face, they will not see you as the monsters of our memory, but as people just like us.”
“I will go,” Lord Martin said. “I am the most qualified to be the delegation for us, for humanity.”
Glaerion’s demeanor quickly reverted to that of disdain. “You would be my last choice.” He looked at Conner and said, “It must be the Hurai. The elves would at least listen to one of the chosen people of the Creator.”
“Hurai?” Marik asked. “But Master Goshin is dead, is he not?”
“Yes,” Conner replied. “But he was not the only Hurai around here. I have Hurai blood in me. I didn’t even know about it until Glaerion told me.”
“How can you know?”
“Magic does not affect me,” Conner replied. “You were not there, but in the castle Tarcious threw balls of fire at me and they did not affect me.”
“I thought that was Glaerion!” Elissa exclaimed. “You can’t be hurt by those creatures?”
“By wizards casting spells,” Glaerion clarified. “The dragons and the small goblin creatures that are destroying your city were called forth by the power of the Ark, but they are not magic themselves. Conner is not immune to them. But to any spell cast by a wizard, he is immune.”
“I will go,” Conner said.
“I will, too!” Elissa cried out.
Glaerion shook his head. “This trip is but for myself and Conner.”
Elissa put her hands on her hips and glared at Glaerion. “I am not letting him out of my sight for the rest of my life. Where he goes, I go.”
“My queen,” Lord Kirwal said. “The kingdom will need you. We will need your leadership and direction to survive against these creatures. You must stay and help our kingdom unite together.”
Marik interrupted. “No, wait, actually this might not be a bad idea. If the true and rightful ruler of our kingdom is safe, then our kingdom will survive. When she returns with help, then we will rebuild the kingdom. She is not a military leader anyway. The rest of us will stay and fight back as best we can.”
Lord Kirwal looked at Marik thoughtfully for a moment. “You have a good point. Our people will fight with courage and bravery knowing that help is on its way.”
Glaerion said, “I cannot promise we will help.”
“Your people have so much hatred for us, that they would be willing to let us all die?”
Glaerion let his head nod just a little bit. “You have no idea the hate that fills our heart.”
“I will convince them,” Conner said.
“We will convince them!” Elissa corrected.
The loud cry of a dragon high overhead startled them. Although they were under the canopy of trees, they were barren of leaves and did not provide much concealment. Without being prompted, they all rushed into the forest where they would find better cover.
The dragon flew through the sky in larger and larger circles, pumping its wings to fly faster and faster. Two other dragons that had ravaged the city soon joined it. In formation, they sailed upwards, flying past wispy clouds high into the sky. It wasn’t long before they were but a speck of black in the blue sky.
About the Author
Brad Clark grew up in the modestly sized city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, but now resides in a small town in the southwest corner of Michigan. He works as a software engineer at a local family-owned software company.
Reading and writing has always been his passion, but the
stories that were jotted down into piles of notebooks never made it beyond a chapter or two. Somewhere between coaching youth sports and all of life's great adventures, a full-length novel happened to get written. After much nagging from his wife and kids, he broke down and published his first novel as an e-book. With a renewed passion for writing, he dove into the fantasy genre to start the epic fantasy series The Champion Chronicles.
As much as he has a passion for reading and writing, Brad is also an avid road bicyclist and runner. Springtime is running season as he prepares for an annual half-marathon. Summer, though, is his favorite time where he can spend hours riding his bike on quiet back country roads.
With five kids, two still at home, writing is a way to escape from the busyness of life. His stories come from his love of the genre and from his heart. Whether the stories work for the rest of the world is not why he writes, he writes because he simply wants to put his dreams on paper. He never wants his writing to be work, he only desires it to be a fun hobby and hopes that others can share in his stories.
Brad can be followed on twitter @booksbybrad or found on the web at www.booksbybradclark.com.
