The Immortals Part One: Shadows & Starstone

by Cheryl Mackey

  “Let them go!” Jaeger growled. He rushed past Ivo, but his cry was lost in the gruesome screeches emanating from the roiling shadows behind him. Blue eyes glittered with tormented fury as he swung his axe in a singing arc.

  Ivo gained his feet and dragged his sword from the dirt with a howl of rage. He spun on his heel and swung in tandem with his brother, with unerring precision, intent on freeing the dying women even if it meant freeing the woman from her arms.

  “Release them you bitch!” Ivo snarled. Smokey vines erupted out of the ground and twisted and twined around his legs as soon as he moved. Another set of black tendrils shot out of the rocky earth and wrapped around Jaeger’s ankles in a blur of motion. They tumbled to their knees as more slithered and twisted up from the rocky earth and snared their arms and wrists. Axe and sword fell to the ground and clattered away before they could slash the sneer off the woman’s cruelly beautiful face.

  Fury burned in Ivo, his pulse pounding in his ears until he was nearly deafened to all other sounds. He struggled and jerked to free himself, to no avail. Jaeger too, struggled to free himself; his eyes pinned on the now barely-moving women still clutched in the Necromancer’s hands.

  “Fools! Axes and swords are useless here. Men,” she sneered down at them and laughed. Thunder boomed, shaking the ground beneath their feet. “They never think beyond the obvious. You are no match for Alarandia.”

  She turned away with a long-suffering sigh and flung Jadeth and Emaranthe to the ground with a careless flick of her wrists.

  “No!” Ivo howled. He lunged forward only to be jerked back by the vines. They landed heavily, and for a long agonizing moment the women lay still in twin heaps some distance away.

  “Come on, breathe. Just breathe,” Jaeger’s gaze flicked between Emaranthe and Jadeth, worry settling deep in his chest. Ivo swallowed and sweat stung his eyes, but he forced his gaze back up to the towering woman pacing between them and their companions. Alarandia watched them. Keenly. Her black eyes glowed in the inky air. She was waiting to see what they would do.

  Jadeth gagged and shuddered, her lithe frame jerking with the force of her desperate attempts at breathing. She dragged in a violent breath at last, and coughed before slumping back to the ground with a ragged gulp of air. Scarlet fingerprints almost glowed on her pale skin.

  Ivo’s gaze swung to Jadeth as fear sharpened painfully in his chest. He watched in relief as she continued to breathe, but appeared to be unconscious. He sagged to the ground.

  “Thank The Four,” Jaeger whispered. He watched Jadeth struggle to breathe and felt a weight lift from his chest as she seemed to recover, even if barely. He glanced at his brother, but Ivo’s eyes were pinned on the small bundle of cloth and tangled braids.

  Emaranthe inhaled with a gasp, her small body jerking with the force. Coughing and choking, she blinked to clear the fuzzy dark spots that clouded her vision. With each breath her throat burned and her lungs ached. Dizzy and disoriented, she shifted shaking arms beneath her body and pushed herself up off the ground a few inches. Pale braids tumbled over her shoulders and face in a tangle. Gold eyes flared in the shadows as they darted to the methodically pacing woman.

  “Interesting,” Alarandia purred. Her mouth turned up in a vicious, catty smile. She spun on her heel and paced between Emaranthe and Jadeth, blocking Ivo and Jaeger’s view of them. Burning black eyes stared at the snared men. “You are Immortals, yet you still feel fear over their safety.”

  She spun again, her towering curls bouncing on her shoulder. This time she watched Emaranthe and then she studied the unmoving Elf. She glared at Ivo and Jaeger. They returned her glare with barely suppressed fury.

  “Why,” Alarandia frowned and a puzzled look crossed her face, then was gone. “Did those idiot gods bother to immortalize a child? What fools.”

  “Why don’t you let us go and we’ll tell you?” Jaeger snarled. He narrowed his eyes until they glinted in the shadows of his helm. Ivo tested the vines with a growl, but they didn’t give. The ground quaked and shook as thunder cracked and echoed. The clouds roiled and the sky grew darker as they thickened. The Dro-Aconi were close, too close, and four captured Immortals just might give them enough power to break through into Ein-Aral.

  Alarandia cackled in triumph, her head thrown back to the inky sky.

  “I am not stupid,” she hissed between clenched teeth as the rumbling echo of the thunder subsided. She turned and paced between Jadeth and Emaranthe again. “But it appears your gods are desperate if they’ve immortalized a little girl. They must be running out of real warriors again.”

  “If you want a real fight, then fight us!” Ivo growled. He jerked on the coils around his wrists. “Or are you afraid your sorcery is no match for two Immortal warriors?”

  “Brave words, warrior. What is your name?” Alarandia asked. She raised a finely arched eyebrow and paced closer, hands on curvaceous hips.

  “I am called Ivo, son of Veriuc! Free me now or you will pay, Necromancer!”

  “Ah, Ivo. I have heard of you,” Alarandia snarled and flung her head. “You speak well for a simple farm boy. Who were your people?”

  “I am of the Eastern Clan of Saro-shir.” Ivo spat. He narrowed his eyes. She wasn’t about to free him. Her stance had changed from haughty carelessness to cold calculation. She recognized his clan name.

  “Hmm. And you, boy?” Alarandia turned and speared Jaeger with dark eyes and an arched eyebrow. Jaeger snarled beneath his breath. She was toying with them.

  “I am Jaeger, son of Veriuc, brother of Ivo even in immortality!”

  “Well, this is a surprise. The Four sending brothers? How pathetic.” Alarandia sneered, spun on her heel again, and paced away. Her pointed boot kicked at Jadeth as she passed by and both men growled in fury.

  Jadeth threw herself away from the kick with a hiss. She leaped to her feet and tossed a braid over one shoulder, exposing long, delicately tapering ears.

  “Jadeth!” Ivo said, startled.

  The Elf danced away from the surprised Necromancer. Everywhere her feet stepped green buds sprouted, cushioning her against the jagged ground.

  “Let them go,” Jadeth said. “I’m warning you.”

  “Foolish girl!” Alarandia laughed. “You are a healer, what can you do to me?”

  Jadeth took another step and a slender green vine curled around her left ankle and wound up her leg. Another step. Another vine.

  Jaeger jerked and tugged on the coils still rooting him firmly to the ground. Sweat beaded his forehead and stung his eyes. His heart raced until it pounded in his ears and he couldn’t hear what was being said. He ignored the pain.

  “I can do this,” Jadeth mocked the Necromancer. The vines began to emit an eerie green glow. The bruises on her throat immediately faded.

  “Ha, you can heal yourself. I know more than you think, Life Giver. Too bad you can’t heal your little friends without your weapon. I doubt even your pathetic magic will keep you alive when I’ve finished with you. Even Elves die, foolish girl. You are what, four—five thousand years old?” Alarandia sneered. “Your kind die beneath sword and spear just as easily as a mortal!”

  “I’d like to see you try, bitch.” Jadeth whispered. The green glow intensified until she was completely within the light. “Come and get me.”

  Alarandia’s eyes narrowed. She reached for the shadows at her feet and dragged one off the ground. It shifted and solidified into a black spear.

  “With pleasure!”

  The Necromancer slashed the side of the spear at Jadeth. The Elf stood her ground and the instant the dark object struck the green light it froze in mid air and hovered, quivering.

  Alarandia gasped and wrenched on it to no avail.

  “Death cannot triumph over Life, Necromancer,” Jadeth smiled. She didn’t dare look at Ivo and Jaeger. They were either furious or... well, more furious. She had never used her healing as a shield, but she spoke the truth. While connected with the power of nature an
d life, she was shielded from harm from weapons forged of Death. It was just a little... draining. She swayed and the glow pulsed weakly.

  The spear burst into ashes and a sudden gust of wind scattered them.

  Ivo dropped his hands and the ball of air drifted into nothingness.

  That was close...

  “No!” Alarandia screeched, her hands holding empty air now. Her fingers crooked into claws as she narrowed her dark eyes on the Elf. Fury burned her once-pretty face scarlet. With a huff, she paced away from Jadeth, her triumphant smirk now a scowl.

  Emaranthe watched the high leather boots that glided in and out of her frame of vision, then glanced at Ivo and Jaeger, who were watching Jadeth and Alarandia face off in silent shock. She had known, of course, that there was more to her friend than she had let on. Secrets were common, even among the truest of friends, and they were all carrying baggage from their pasts. Emaranthe had no memory at all of her real name or her people, Jadeth was still on a path of vengeance for her mother’s death, Ivo lived to protect them because he hadn’t been able to protect his niece, and Jaeger lived with the desperate hope that his wife and child still roamed the wilds of the east, and had escaped a cruel fate.

  Emaranthe shook herself from her musings and studied the situation. Everyone else’s weapons were out of reach, but Emaranthe’s staff was just to her left, a mere foot from her. She glanced through the curtain of her hair. Alarandia was still busy with Jadeth.

  She shifted her weight to her left. Beneath the thin folds of her robes she fumbled for the staff with trembling fingers and dragged it close to her side. Jadeth had scored another insult and Alarandia was now pacing frenetically, her gaze burning with anger and pinned on Jadeth who was matching the Necromancer’s wary circling with a wide, brittle smile.

  Emaranthe shifted positions again.

  Ivo’s eyes slid past the confrontation between Jadeth and Alarandia. Emaranthe looked up and caught his gaze. A small, triumphant smile pulled the corners of her mouth up as she stood and flung her cloak off. It swirled soundlessly to the rocky ground as she lifted her staff high. Ribbons of flame crackled and swirled down its length.

  Alarandia spun and let out a screech.

  “What?” She snarled and raised both hands, her fingers curled into sharp claws. Emaranthe’s lips twisted into a bitter smile as a stiff wind dragged strands of hair over her face. For a split second the strands of hair flickered with ghostly fire.

  Jaeger inhaled sharply as Alarandia darted forward, clawing and scratching with a shriek. Emaranthe spun away, her braids flailing in a blur of ethereal flames.

  And vanished.

  More than one startled cry cut into the howling wind.

  She reappeared twenty feet away, in a blur of motion as she turned and lifted Ivo’s sword from the ground. She flickered away again, the massive weapon clutched to her chest.

  Alarandia gasped as Emaranthe vanished out of reach. She spun wildly in a circle, scanning the gloom for her foe.

  Emaranthe ducked past the woman and reappeared on the far side of Jadeth. She scooped up Jaeger’s axe, twisted, and vanished again.

  They gasped as Emaranthe reappeared a third time, snatched the massive hammer from beside the rock outcropping and disappeared again, mid run. She reappeared next to Jadeth in a swirl of heat and fire and shoved the hammer into the shocked Elf’s arms before turning and blurring into nothingness once more.

  “Unwilling to face me, child? Are you playing hide and seek then?”Alarandia screamed into the gloom as she spun about, trying to locate the tiny Mage.

  Ivo felt a vicious tug on the vines holding him down. They split easily beneath the sharp edge of his blade, the metal shivering and singing in the wind that was helping her hold it. Emaranthe twisted and swung the sword once more with uncanny precision and Jaeger’s bonds fell away in pieces. The weapons clattered to the rocky ground at their feet. She twisted away, her braids blurring with the speed of the movement, and dissolved yet again in a flicker of flame.

  Ivo climbed to his feet heavily and lifted his sword with a growl. He reached for his shield. It sailed across the plateau and into his hands with a single burst of angry energy. His grip tightened on the bands with every enraged breath he took.

  Jaeger hefted his axe and swung it in a testy arc. Ice crept over the blade, completely encasing it. His eyes paled, grew colder, until they glinted like frozen chips of rage. His breath clouded the air.

  Jadeth gripped her hammer until the heavy metal creaked beneath the pressure. With a hiss she stabbed the end into the ground and a burst of green light raced up the handle and outward, creating a wide green field of light. She sank into a crouch, the movement dragging sharp shadows on the cliff walls.

  Alarandia turned with a cry to find the two warriors and Elf armed. Furious eyes darted among the three and searched the shadows for the fourth.

  “So, a fight you want then?” She hissed and her lush lips curved into a wide, slightly insane smile.

  “Your wish is our command… bitch.” Jaeger snarled and dropped into a low crouch. Frost crept up the heavy iron, honing the ancient blade into icy sharpness. Ivo growled and readied his sword. It gleamed in the eerie green glow, as light to him as the wind, but his gaze turned to the murky shadows.

  Where was Emaranthe?

  Ivo leveled the sword and paced to the left. His eyes narrowed on the tall, dark woman with burning eyes. Her crimson lips were curled into a sneer that made her elegant face ugly.

  They continued to circle. Jadeth paced just behind Ivo and Jaeger, her hammer’s green glow stretching and bending shadows as they moved. Able to see better than the men in the gloom, she watched a small flicker of smoke drift from behind a second, larger boulder across the plateau. It vanished quickly in the dim light and reappeared for a split second behind a bush at the very edge of the roiling and swirling band of shadows that heralded the incoming horde. The remaining generals still milled about, seemingly unaware of the looming confrontation.

  Thunder cracked. The ground shuddered. Jadeth glanced up. The shadows were strengthening, trying to force their way into Ein-Aral. She licked her dry lips and pinned her gaze on the evil woman.

  “Tell us, Alarandia, what will you do if we send you back to your Masters without Starstone?” Jadeth sneered and waited to see what the woman would do.

  Both Ivo and Jaeger hesitated, startled. As expected, black eyes narrowed in fury and a snarl twisted her lush lips.

  “I have no Masters, Elf!” Alarandia stopped circling and turned the full force of her brittle anger on the Elf.

  “Oh, I thought you were the Dro-Aconi’s pet, sorry.” Jadeth giggled. She shrugged and flipped a red braid over her shoulder.

  “Um, Jadeth?” Jaeger sighed. The towering woman’s eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously. “Do you really need to piss her—”

  “Pet!” Alarandia screeched. “I am no one’s pet, Elf bitch!” She raised both arms and dark tendrils spiraled out of the ground at her feet. They swirled in a choking cloud. The ground trembled. Multiple spears of small white bone jabbed up through the earth.

  Ivo snarled and motioned for the other two to back up as the bony spears twitched and scratched in sets up out of the ground. Finger bones emerged first, then whole hands. The cracks widened as the hands clawed and raked apart the rock and chipped arm bones pushed free.

  With a triumphant cackle, Alarandia backed away from the half dozen minions erupting from the earth.

  “If you wanted pets to play with my dear, why didn’t you say so?” She screeched as another rumble of thunder echoed off the cliff walls. Lightning flashed above, then behind her something else, brighter.

  Jaeger sucked in his breath as the lightning flared, sending shadows skating across the rocky terrain. Out of one of the shadows Emaranthe appeared beside one of the milling generals.

  He opened his mouth to warn her, but she leaped at the general with blazing hands. It burst into flame just as thunder cracked
the sky open. It stumbled and screeched hideously, but its howls went unheard in the last remnants of the thunder.

  Jaeger’s gaze flicked back to Alarandia, who was posing triumphantly behind her lineup of skeletons. They had to keep her attention on them.

  Ivo hissed as another burst of fire behind the Necromancer drew his attention. Another general flailed and screeched in a ball of fire, unnoticed by the psycho bitch.

  He grinned and swung his sword in a low arc. Jaeger lifted his axe high as he bent into a crouch. As one they launched themselves at the skeleton minions with twin howls of fury. As Jaeger’s icy axe swung high, Ivo’s sword flashed low, and heads and knees clattered free to litter the ground. Six piles of moldy bones dropped to the plateau floor before Alarandia.

  “Ahh!” Her screech was echoed by another violent rumble of thunder as she once again found herself facing the three alone.

  Lightning flared, tossing shadows. The last general ignited behind Alarandia and Ivo watched as it flung itself off the plateau in a ball of fire. For a long moment Emaranthe stood still, her head down, in the midst of the swirling, storming shadows. When she lifted her head, gold gleamed in the purple laced gloom. At last, looking weary and winded, she turned and focused on Alarandia.

  A grim smile stretched Ivo’s mouth up at the corner.

  Emaranthe inhaled and closed her eyes. Weariness tugged on her mind and soul. So tired. She straightened her shoulders and turned to face the small group across the clearing. Green glittered in the darkness of Ivo’s helm and she knew that he watched her. She smiled slightly and inhaled again. She reached for the fire building inside her and lifted her staff aloft.

  Flames licked up the staff, her arm, and down her body in a consuming cascade of heat. Inside the fiery shell her gaze burned in the gloom.

  She slammed her eyes shut and vanished.

  Emaranthe reappeared just behind Alarandia, who spun on her heel as the fiery shield singed the back of her leather bustier.

  “What?” Alarandia hissed and backed up. Toward Ivo, Jadeth, and Jaeger. Just in time she remembered the three behind her and she wheeled about again, her arms raised and fingers crooked into claws. Her head snapped back and forth between the two sets of threats so fast that her tower of curls threatened to topple.

  She settled on Emaranthe and turned her flaming, dark eyes on her. Emaranthe stared up at the woman, unconcerned and wide eyed in the murkiness. The fiery shield settled and drifted away in the stiff breeze, leaving her unprotected.

  Ivo frowned.

  What the hell…

  Fiery eyes flicked to his as if she’d heard his thoughts. Her lips twisted up in a small smile.

  Trust me.

  Alarandia stared down at the tiny female uncertainly. What kind of trick was this? She was a little girl!

  Emaranthe glanced up and locked gazes with the Necromancer.

  “Do you really think either of them will make you Queen?” Emaranthe whispered so softly that Jaeger glanced at Ivo and Jadeth. Both of them caught his look, startled. Queen?

  “What are you talking about girl?” Alarandia turned and walked slowly away from the girl, but kept the three others within her line of sight. Those three are dangerous, she mused, and the girl is just a girl.

  “Maybe you want to be Queen of the Universe,” Emaranthe tilted her head quizzically. “Why else would you betray your own people and serve the Dro-Aconi?”

  “You don’t know anything do you?” Alarandia flung her head and sniffed haughtily.

  “No,” Emaranthe agreed with the statuesque witch and turned to pace as well. Wind howled and the shadows behind them rumbled and swirled. “But what did they promise you then?”

  Alarandia raised an arched eyebrow at the girl and switched directions to pace the other way. Emaranthe mirrored her motions as the wind snagged her braids and dragged them over her face and shoulders.

  Jaeger blinked as ghostly flames licked and writhed the length of the long blonde streamers as she moved, but then vanished as the wind settled. Impressed, he found himself staring to his left, where Ivo was inhaling and exhaling heavily, clenching and unclenching his fist around the sword hilt. He was furious, Jaeger realized. Afraid, and it was a fear he’d never admit to. Jaeger swallowed, his throat tightening.

  Jadeth backed away a step at a time. She needed to get closer to Emaranthe, who was too far from the healing glow of the hammer. She sidled around Ivo to stand between him and Emaranthe, completing nearly a half circle around Alarandia.

  “Promise me? What makes you think he promised me anything, girl?” Alarandia snarled, her focus now totally on the small figure in frayed brown robes.

  “What else did you have? Nothing. And you know that once you have nothing, you always want something.” Emaranthe shot Jadeth a covert glance and gold locked with sapphire for a fleeting moment. She could feel the soothing green glow touch her now.

  “I’m pretty sure that you’d want a lot for betraying your own people, and you were used to getting what you wanted,” Emaranthe added. She watched Alarandia’s face turn nearly purple with rage. “That nothing short of an entire empire would buy you.”

  “Bitch!” Alarandia hissed. She flung her hand high and a ball of inky smoke writhed and swirled in her palm.

  “They won’t make you their equal, Alarandia,” Jaeger darted forward, snagging her attention for a brief moment. “You are nothing but a puppet! The Dro-Aconi are using you to open the doorway to our world. Your world! Do you care nothing for your own people?”

  She had forgotten about them again.

  Alarandia turned with a scream and hurled the ball of inky smoke at Jaeger. He ducked and it sailed over his head by a millimeter. It splashed with smoky swirls against the stones behind him. The rock cracked and darkened, crumbled, weathering instantly as if a thousand years had passed. Breathing heavily, Jaeger stood and readied his axe, but didn’t move. He waited for Ivo to cave into the rage simmering within his emerald eyes.

  Ivo swung his shield before him and roared a challenge that echoed louder than the thunder. It shook the stone beneath them and howled across the plateau. Driven by the wind it bounced and harried the Necromancer with a torturous cry.

  Alarandia swung another ball of death smoke. Ivo ducked aside, shield high. It carved a sickening dent in the heavy steel, drawing a screeching sound that would have raised the dead, but it was made by the gods and didn’t crack.

  Jaeger dove as she turned, swinging his axe in an icy arc low to the ground. It slashed through well-muscled flesh on Alarandia’s left calf, sending her to her knees with a howl of pain. Blood, blackened by the evil of the Dro-Aconi’s mind control, splattered wide. It bled freely for a split second, then shards of black ice grew in its place. The ice spread until her leg was encased.

  “Wait!” Emaranthe cried out. Ivo and Jaeger backed away, still growling with rage. Jaeger refused to release the ice. Emaranthe studied Alarandia for a long moment.

  Emaranthe approached the now kneeling, partially frozen Necromancer.

  “What did they promise you, Alarandia?” Emaranthe asked.

  “The Dro-Aconi are coming, child,” Alarandia sneered. Her gaze darted between the Mage and the bristle of sharp weapons pointed her way. “Soon they will be strong and you can’t stop them from corrupting the rest of the mortals. Their darkness will spread like a plague for thousands of years and we who honor them will watch those gifted by the gods suffer!”

  “We will fight for this world as long as it takes, Alarandia,” Emaranthe said. She watched the woman’s smirk falter. “But will you play pet to them for empty promises? Was it worth it to give up your life, your own people?”

  “They promised me what I wanted, girl.” Alarandia hissed between bared, feral teeth.

  “I don’t think they can give you that now.” Emaranthe glanced over her shoulder at the thundering storm of clouds and shadows. Without the generals the shadows had no anchor, no physical tether to this plane of existence to
send their evil through.

  Alarandia said nothing; she had underestimated the little girl.

  “You should leave, Alarandia, before it’s too late,” Emaranthe whispered. She backed away, her eyes burning white hot in the murkiness. “Leave the Starstone. Leave these free people alone.”

  Alarandia climbed to her feet with attempted grace, her lower leg still encased in black ice. Her soulless black eyes, still on the tiny girl, now burned with something akin to fear.

  “Why are you letting me go?”

  “Mercy is something the strong give to the weak, Alarandia.” Ivo snarled. Emaranthe closed her eyes and fire slithered and spread to envelope her in a glowing shield again. Her eyes snapped open.

  “Go back and tell your masters that we are not going to give up. We will protect Ein-Aral. We will protect the free races of our world until our bodies are dust and time stands still.” Emaranthe’s voice echoed loud and strong within the shield and seemed to fill the entire plateau.

  The ice encasing her leg melted and Alarandia backed away, her eyes darting between the Immortals. She stumbled over something behind her and turned to find smoldering piles of cloth and bone— all that remained of the generals. With a hiss, she turned and glared before her gaze settled on the flame-shrouded girl who was closest.

  “I will see you again, girl. I look forward to our battle of death and fire!” Alarandia sneered and lifted her hands skyward, toward the center of the shifting shadows. A flare of dark light erupted downwards, capturing Alarandia and lifting her into the air. Floating free, her mass of scarlet curls in a halo around her face, she could have been considered beautiful. Once. Long ago, before evil and death had stolen her soul.

  With a grinding, angry screech, the inky shadows jerked free of their tenuous grip on Ein-Aral. The beam containing Alarandia retracted with a flare of purple light.

  The ground beneath them heaved and buckled, then settled with clouds of dust as the last of the darkness faded from the plateau. The inky gloom drifted away as a fresh breeze chased the rolling clouds. Light returned, at first dim, then brightening as the midday sunlight spilled from behind the vanishing clouds.

  Ivo stared skyward, open mouthed, as he watched the blue sky return. Beside him, Jaeger ignored the transformed sky and traded worried glances with Jadeth. A sharp elbow in Ivo’s side jerked the Warrior’s attention back down to his friends. He caught sight of Emaranthe and inhaled sharply. A spike of fear jabbed him deep inside.

  Emaranthe leaned on her staff with trembling arms, her head bowed, her hair trailing in the soft breeze, hiding her face. Shaking fingers gripped the staff until they whitened.

  “Emaranthe?” Ivo moved to her side. She didn’t move, but inhaled deeply. Finally, she lifted her head and serene golden brown eyes looked up at the sky. A small smile twisted one corner of her mouth up.

  Relieved, Ivo sighed, but something nagged at his mind.

  “Emaranthe, what was it that the Dro-Aconi promised her?” Ivo asked. Her eyes flickered with pain, but stayed focused on the vivid summer sky.

  “The same thing I’ve wanted for nearly three hundred years,” she turned and stowed her staff at her back and walked to join Jadeth and Jaeger, who were watching and waiting in silence.

  “What is it?” Jaeger asked as he and Jadeth fell in beside her and Ivo, and they turned toward the cliff face. They stared far off at the reds and oranges of the valley far below them. The pillars of stone glowed in the warmth of the suns and the distant ledges glinted as the giant blades of the windmills spun lazily.

  “She wanted peace in death.”

  Ivo turned and watched as the last remnants of the invasion faded, drifting into dust on the wind, until nothing was left but the boulders and spindly bushes.

  “Come, our work is done. For now,” he said. He jammed his sword into the sheath at his waist and slung his battered, cracked shield over his shoulder where it vanished into shadow. Even though he knew they had won, his heart still sat heavy inside his chest—they had won but a small, insignificant battle—the war was still all around them. Where there were corruptible mortals there would be the Dro-Aconi using them to destroy Ein-Aral.

  “Do you think we stopped her from taking enough Starstone to bring the Dro-Aconi back?” Jaeger too, stowed his weapon and shot the now-clear sky a wary look as he moved to stand beside Ivo. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he narrowed them against the sunlight.

  “We may never know. We can only hope Alarandia has rethought her position with them.” Ivo sighed and dragged the helm from his head. He gripped it with one hand and ran the other through his dark hair until it stuck up much like Jaeger’s. “It felt almost too easy, brother.”

  Emaranthe watched the brothers from the edge of the plateau with a slight smile, then turned and tugged her hood up to cover her hair. The fresh breeze toyed with her pale braids as she turned to Jadeth.

  “Are you ready to head back?” Jadeth stretched her arms above her head, much like a cat enjoying the sun. Her scarlet braids had come loose and now tumbled loosely about her shoulders. “I am. I am so sick of skeletons and zombies.”

  “I don’t know, maybe you’d like this then?” Jaeger appeared beside her and held up a cleanly cleaved skeletal forearm and shook it playfully at her.

  “Ugh! Get rid of that!” Jadeth yelped. She slapped at the offering and knocked it out of his hand. He laughed out loud and both Ivo and Emaranthe turned to look at him in surprise.

  Green eyes met gold and both smiled. It was good to hear Jaeger laugh. In the many years they had traveled together he had always been the least carefree and happy. Their smiles faded again.

  Maybe one day, after their world was no longer threatened, they’d all be able to laugh.

  “Come, let’s ride,” Ivo’s face tightened. One day was far off, unfortunately. He jammed his helmet over dark hair again and turned toward the mine entrance. “We need to get back to the village.”

  Jadeth and Emaranthe followed behind Ivo, and Jaeger took up his customary position in the back. The darkness in the mine was no longer suffocating, but tinged with the faint off-red of the still glowing Starstone veins. It gave just enough light for them to find their way without needing Emaranthe’s little flame lamp.

  They journeyed throughout the rest of the day, unhampered by foes or weather, and enjoyed the fresh air and warm sunlight. The path wound down the cliff faces in many twists and switchbacks. The once-surly wind was now a breath of life. They reached the body of the murdered villager and gathered rock and rubble to make a mound over him and then once again bowed respectfully before moving on down the path.

  They reached the bottom as the sun began to sink into the west, casting vivid red and gold fingers of light throughout the valley.

  Emaranthe watched the sunlight play on the red cliff walls, her eyes shadowed from deep within the frayed hood. Alarandia was gone, for now, and their job was done.

  She lifted her arm in an unspoken signal and her stallion appeared beyond a nearby cactus. Smiling, she stroked his nose and patted his stiff coat with gloved hands.

  “Hello old boy. Miss me?” Emaranthe glanced over her shoulder as the others mounted their stallions, and moved to do the same. She leaped onto the horse in a blur of motion and gathered the reins. They moved as one down the path toward the small village.

  “I think I need a vacation.” Jaeger grumbled as he dragged a hand over his face. Weary lines tightening his mouth and his wide shoulders sagged under his armor.

  “I could use a pint in the Broken Bow Pub.” Ivo shot his brother a look and earned a half smile as old memories surfaced. Good ones this time. Emaranthe smiled in the shadows of her hood and turned to look back at Ivo, who had let the women lead to ride beside his brother.

  “I bet I could out-drink you this time.” She smirked. Her eyes glittered brightly and met green over their horse’s heads. Jadeth’s gaze snapped between the two in confusion.

  “Okay, what’s the joke?” She
raised an arched eyebrow a Jaeger who was struggling to keep a smirk off his face.

  “Well, this one time...”

  “What?!” Ivo snarled. He jerked back on the reins so hard it sank onto its haunches with a snort. The beast jumped and danced with alarm, but beneath Ivo’s expert hand he calmed. He stared past the women.

  Jaeger’s smirk faded into a scowl as he looked past Jadeth and Emaranthe to the oddly quiet village that appeared as they rounded the last bend.

  Emaranthe slid down from her horse and studied the empty shadows. Nothing moved and no sounds betrayed the presence of… anyone.

  “It’s empty,” she whispered. She dropped the reins of her stallion and darted forward. Fear sank deep in her chest as she slid around corner of the nearest clapboard shack and halted at the center. “No!”

  The bonfire was out, not even smoldering in the late afternoon light. She dragged a glove off her hand and jammed it into the coal bed. Cold. She slid the glove back over her hand and turned as Ivo and Jaeger crept into the clearing with axe and sword ready.

  Keen eyes sized up the village in one look.

  “No bodies,” Jaeger climbed the rickety steps of the nearest shack and prodded the door open with his axe. It swung wide on worn leather strap hinges and sagged inward. A quick glance told him it was empty… of belongings too. “And no possessions. They’ve cleared out.”

  “Why would they leave?” Jadeth glided into the clearing and shouldered her glowing hammer. Her confused gaze matched Emaranthe’s.

  The Mage’s narrow shoulders hunched deeper into her cloak.

  “The fire is days cold. They didn’t think we’d prevail.” Emaranthe sighed.

  “They were cowards,” Jaeger dropped off the high porch of the shack with a growl, landing lightly despite his armor. “They knew to trust us.”

  “No, they did what they felt they needed to do. In time they will return, but it is our time to leave here.” Ivo’s scowl matched Jaeger’s briefly. He watched Emaranthe’s thin shoulders sag under her cloak and inhaled. Anger thinned his mouth into a hard line. These people should have had more faith in her, in them.

  “It isn’t your fault, Emaranthe.” Ivo slammed his sword back into its sheath and moved to stand before her. She bowed her head for a long moment before looking up at him. Gold eyes glittered in the shadows—but he couldn’t tell if it was from fire or tears. He reached out a hand, but pulled it back. Uncertainty weighed him down as did the sharp jerk of his heart at the sight of her devastated expression. The pain behind the fire burned far more than the flames themselves. He swallowed and stepped away from the Mage. “Come.”

  “Let’s go. We have work to do elsewhere.” Jaeger turned his back on the deserted village and walked away. The others followed.

  “We need to report back to The Unknown City,” Ivo shot one last look at the silent village before reining his horse away. “The nearest portal is a half day from here.”

  They rode in pained silence, and for a long time the only sounds were the rattling of spiny sage bushes in the wind and the distant howl of a coyote. Darkness fell swiftly in the gorge, and with it came a bitter cold.

  Emaranthe dragged her cloak tighter around her arms and flexed her nearly-numb fingers within the ragged gloves that hid her scarred hands. Her frosty breath clouded her vision with each exhale. The others rode ahead of her and didn’t take much note of the cold…Jadeth’s elfin body made her practically immune to it, and Ivo was covered in heavy armor. Jaeger’s gift made the cold a friend, not foe, to him.

  They crossed a narrow stream and caught sight of the portal’s shimmering glow against the cliff wall. The portal loomed before them, giant stone sentinels carved of the very Starstone they struggled to keep from the enemy. The statues framed the blue-white light and guarded it from trespassers. It was the doorway to their City, a place for none but Immortals. They approached the shimmering light.

  Emaranthe glanced back as her horse’s head vanished into the light. All she could see in the night were the shadowed shapes of stone formations.

  Good bye…

  A flash of scarlet, brief, but vivid, startled Emaranthe into reining her horse to a halt. Squinting, she could just make out the color against the blackness of the night.

  Goose bumps traveled up her arms as the blob of color halted and seemed to come into focus despite the darkness. The red billowed on a wind that did not touch Emaranthe, and the chill of recognition was fierce, yet foreign.

  Wide brown eyes locked with Emaranthe’s beneath the banner of scarlet curls. A girl child, nearing womanhood, with coltish legs and new curves, watched Emaranthe silently with wise, haunted eyes.

  “Who are you?” Emaranthe called out, breaking the stillness.

  “What’s wrong?” Ivo asked. Startled, she swung back around in the saddle with a gasp.

  “What? Oh, there’s a...”

  She turned to point out the child, but only the empty darkness waited. With a shiver, she let her hand drop and swallowed the lump thickening her throat.

  “Nothing. I thought I saw something,” she rasped. “But it was nothing.”

  “Come then; they are waiting,” Ivo said, frowning. Emaranthe’s face was ashen in the glow of the portal, and her gaze lingered in the darkness for just a bit longer than needed.

  Emaranthe turned back to the portal and its shimmering glow made her squint. The glow was bright, like liquid light, but it didn’t cast far.

  Certainly not far enough for her to have seen the red-haired girl.

  Rubbing her hands along her arms, she turned away from the darkness and thoughts of the girl. At least, she tried to, but goose bumps still rose with an eerie chill and a sense of déjà-vu.

  She walked the horse into the comfortably-warmer great room and slid off his broad back in one motion. A sharp slap on the rump sent his dish-sized hoofs clattering across the stone floor and out the main door. He would find the stables easily.

  “It feels good to be back.” Jadeth smiled down at her tiny friend but Emaranthe didn’t answer or look back. Instead, her shoulders hunched even deeper into her cloak.

  Burning gold eyes glittered in the shadows of the hood as they darted around the busy chamber. The throne room of The Unknown City was packed with people; servants, aides, commoners come to declare claims and hash out issues. Of all the cities in Ein-Aral only The Unknown City had survived the ravages of time and war. Hidden in a remote location and only reachable by the giant portals placed strategically throughout the continents of Ein-Aral, it was the one remaining intact stronghold in their world. Home to all three races for centuries, it had become a cultural and military hub. It was here that their leaders sat upon cold stone thrones and waited with calculating gazes.

  Ivo led them toward the thrones where the three Lords of the Races sat. Rodon, the Earthlander, and Ishelene, the Tevu Elf, stood as they approached. Atil, Lord of the Windwalkers, remained still, indifferent. As one the companions knelt before the three, heads bowed.

  “Rise, Immortals.” Rodon called out. His voice rumbled, like thunder. Like many Earthlander men, he was formidable to face. Dark hair, shorn short by a blunt blade, stuck to his head in sweaty clumps. Tanned and weathered by age and the hardness of life, Rodon was one of the oldest Immortals yet breathing. Emaranthe inhaled as she rose, letting the hood fall back. Rodon’s gaze snapped to her and his lips pressed into a thin line.

  “Tell me the news from the south.” Rodon tugged on his beard and paced between his seat and the platform steps. His silver eyes swung back to the two men standing nearest him.

  “We convinced Alarandia to leave, Lord.” Jaeger jerked his helm free and bowed again.

  “Convinced, eh?” Rodon chuckled, but didn’t ask for the tale. He had no time for tales with his people, the Earthlanders, dying by the thousands or becoming mindless minions of the enemy. “Good. Your mission was successful at least.”

  “Yes, Lord.” Ivo added. He removed his helm. Rodon studied both
men with keen eyes, and then the She-Elf who glanced between him and Ishelene. He understood her dilemma and didn’t comment. War challenged even the greatest allegiances, and as such he was in command of the Immortals alone. Ishelene, fair of face but sour of heart, sneered and removed herself from their presence with a flick of her long ears and inky black hair. Her thoughts leveled Earthlanders lower in importance than other races.

  Rodon grunted and ignored her. He turned to Ivo, dismissing all thoughts of Elves, “I have another quest for you and your companions.”

  Ivo frowned and traded looks with his brother.

  “Lord, with all due respect, we have been without leave for a good amount of time.”

  “I am sorry. This cannot wait and you are the best warriors I have. It is an order.” Rodon’s gaze found Emaranthe’s and he wondered at the despair that flickered there. She bowed her head, however, breaking eye contact.

  “Yes, my Lord.” Ivo grunted. He slammed his helm onto his head once more. So much for the pint at after all.

  “Have you ever heard of Orin-Iad, the Citadel in the Sky?” Rodon asked. He halted and studied their blank looks.

  “The name is not familiar outside of legend, Lord,” Emaranthe whispered. The busy room stilled until even a twitch of her braids could be heard. Her gaze found Atil, the Windwalker Lord. He didn’t look at her, couldn’t.

  The places where eyes should have been were empty, blackened holes. Holes he’d gouged into his own skull to keep the madness spread by the Dro-Aconi at bay. His people, the Windwalkers, the winged warriors of the mountains, had been the first to fall to the invaders. They were enslaved, tortured, and killed without mercy. Atil, the first Windwalker Immortalized, had been a captain of their legions, and upon his death and reincarnation, had taken the throne and his own sight.

  At her words, Atil hunched forward on his stone seat and tilted his head toward the sound of her voice, not caring that strands of tangled brown hair hid most of his face. He preferred it that way. His wings flashed, beating at the air restlessly.

  He said, “You speak with knowledge, Child of Fire. Tell me what you know of The Legend.”

  Emaranthe leveled her gaze on his empty eye sockets. Within the shadows behind his hair they seemed to see all too well.

  “I know that an entire Windwalker land and all of its inhabitants vanished before the Immortals were first chosen,” she said. “It is said that The Four sought to save your race from annihilation by hiding them away forever. They stole an entire city and sent it into the sky to be kept safe from evil.”

  Atil sat back, a triumphant grimace tightening his maimed face. He flicked his hair from his face with a shrug of a shoulder and folded his wings again.

  “What say you, Atil?” Rodon asked. He didn’t understand why the Windwalker Lord would find the loss of so many of his people, much less an entire city, amusing.

  “You wish to send them on a fool’s errand, Rodon. Orin-Iad is gone,” Atil said. His scarred face fell into a stony mask of indifference. “Even I cannot find where my own homeland had once been. All evidence of its existence vanished with it.”

  “Why are we to search for a missing city, Lord?” Jaeger asked when the silence stretched.

  “I am not concerned about the city. I, too, think it long gone. Its people are now dust and ash in the wind,” Rodon grunted, shooting Atil a sideways glare. The crippled Windwalker growled under his breath, anger tightening the lines at the corners of his empty eyes. “It is what was held there that I am after, and I alone know of its value, and hope of its return. Hope that because it did not belong there, it was left behind.”

  Ivo frowned, “Lord, if this is a quest for a trinket when we are best served to fight in the tides of war...”

  “I never said its value was to me, Ivo. Be wary of how you speak,” Rodon hissed. Green eyes traded glares with silver, but neither backed down, to the surprise of all.

  “I’m not sure how to find the place a missing city once was, Lord,” Jaeger interrupted the silent battle. “Perhaps you can clarify?”

  “My spies are searching even now, for there was a rumor of a map. A map made by a sole surviving Windwalker from The Citadel,” Rodon said. He turned away and dropped into his cold stone seat. Armor clanked and leather groaned. “The last intel I have is that it is somewhere in the south. The far south we consider beyond the current borders of civilized territory.”

  The room stilled once more as if caught on a shocked inhale.

  Rodon traded looks with the Immortals he had trained. They were loyal to each other. Unusually gifted. He grunted and trained a glare on the warrior who could speak to the wind.

  “Find the map. Find the location. Find The Crown of Gods.”

  To be continued with THE IMMORTALS PART TWO: ALLIES & ENEMIES, available now. Enjoy this sneak peak!

  Chapter One

  3 Weeks later, Sand Lake, Burning Desert, Ein-Aral