Avalyne Series 02: The Easterling

by Linda Thackeray

  ‘Yes, we do,’ Aeron answered recalling a few terrors in the dark that had awakened him the way she had a short time ago. ‘There are times when I dream of the demon we encountered in the catacombs of Iridia,’ he confessed.

  ‘Demon?’ Melia looked at him, her eyes round with wonder.

  ‘During our attempt to free Iridia,’ Aeron explained, telling her the tale of the Nameless.

  They called it the Nameless because none of them had seen its like before.

  The Nameless was encountered when the Circle journeyed through a secret entrance into the Starfall Mountains of Iridia. They were on their way to gathering of the dwarf clans to discuss their participation in the alliance against Balfure when they encountered the beast awakened by the Shadow Lord.

  Its savagery was such that it was hard to believe such a thing could live outside of nightmares. The beast had lain in wait beneath the bottom of a fissure the dwarves called Unending Well, gaining sustenance from the poor victims using the steps carved into its wall to travel to other parts of the mountain.

  Far larger than a wyvern, it possessed four elongated necks as thick as columns and when raised to their full height, almost touched the roof of the cavern. Each of those sightless heads were little than large mouths full of serrated teeth that the beast used to snatch its prey with the speed of a cracking whip. More often than not, only an abrupt scream was all the warning anyone was given being crushed by powerful jaws.

  It had taken everything they had to kill it, with Tamsyn forced to bring down the cavern walls to bury it under tonnes of rock. To this day, Aeron did not know if it still lived, trapped beneath the earth, waiting for someone to release it and on occasion, he dreamed of it. The violence of those memories could be considered nightmares.

  Aeron's voice was soft as his mind drifted back to days when their purpose was clear and the enemy so well defined. There was something freeing about knowing one's course with such certainty that nothing else seemed to matter and except the fate of his friends in the Circle. Until they had scattered to the winds to follow their own destines, Aeron did not realise how dearly he missed the camaraderie they afforded each other.

  Melia saw the longing in his eyes and felt sad for him. For the first time, she wondered if elves kept to themselves because it was too hard to be friends with races that they would almost certainly outlive. How hard was it to be the ones always left behind to mourn? Seeing his pain and hearing of his nightmares made her dreams less terrible.

  ‘Arianne said that Dare was almost lost at Iridia. Was this when?’ She asked, having heard something of the tale during the quest to Sanhael.

  Even now, the moment made Aeron shudder. When the enormous neck of the Nameless had struck the wall along which the steps they were travelling, great chunks of rock had broken off and rained down upon them. Dare had been knocked off his perch and only Aeron’s quick reflexes had caught him before he had plunged to his death..

  ‘Yes,’ he answered her. ‘He almost fell to his death but I caught him in time. Until that moment, I do not believe any of us knew how much we needed him to hold us together. If he had died, the alliance would have gone with him.’

  Melia could well believe that. King Dare had a way about him, a sincerity and unwavering belief in people that transcended race. He saw the races of Avalyne as a whole not separate parts limited by boundaries. He had shown the Western Sphere how strong they could be together and if he had died then, the fragile alliance would have shattered.

  ‘I was ready to tie him up and send him to the safety of Halas after that,’ Aeron uttered a short humourless laugh. ‘Anything to keep him safe. After losing Braedan, I did not wish to bury another friend.’

  ‘Braedan?’

  ‘Before Celene and Kyou joined our circle, it was Braedan and I that followed Dare when he began visiting the people of the Western Sphere to rally them against Balfure. Braedan was the son of Braelan who ruled Sandrine for Balfure. His father was a brute but Braedan had a good heart and he believed that Dare could save us. When the Disciples chased us down seven years ago, I sent Dare into Barrenjuck Green while Braedan and I led them away. Braedan pretended to be Dare and the ruse worked, they were led enough astray to allow Dare’s escape. Unfortunately Braedan and I were separated and they were able to capture him. ‘

  Melia did not need to hear the rest of this tale for she knew it already. Braedan had no more survived the interrogation by the Disciples than Keira Furnsby had. How sad it was that they had lost two friends that night. The only difference being that with Braedan, there was a body to bury. They still had not found where Syphia had left Keira in the old wood.

  ‘I like to think my father died in the same manner, fighting to the last to defend the people he cared for,’ she said quietly not looking at him. ‘I was so accustomed to him going off to fight one war after another that it never occurred to me that one day he would not return. He was the only who loved me for what I was and when he gone, everything in my world changed.’

  Neither spoke for a few minutes as they thought of the loved ones gone from this world and shared in silence the sadness that only strengthened the bond between them. Since her father died, Melia had shared nothing about him to anyone because no one had cared enough to ask. After being alone for so long, it was difficult to reach into one's soul and find again the things she buried so deeply. She had not spoken of her father since his death and the years of loneliness that followed made her forget just much she truly missed him.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ She asked in wishing to dispel the melancholy that had settled over them.

  ‘As if I have battled ogres,’ he answered through a groan when he made an attempt to ease back into his sleeping place to make an attempt at rest.

  'We will rest tomorrow,’ she spoke gently but there was force enough in her words to indicate that she would broke no argument on this matter.

  ‘I am hardly in the position to say otherwise,’ he replied as he saw her nestle into her bedroll as well.

  ‘Good,’ Melia said with a little smile as she closed her eyes to sleep, ‘perhaps there is some use for the ogres after all.’

  ******

  It was not long before she was tossing and turning again, the demons plaguing her unrelenting in their torment of her slumber. Aeron rose from his sleeping place and crossed the circle of campfire light between them. Stretching out next to her, he brushed his hand against her dark hair and began to sing an elven song that his mother Syanne used to lull him to sleep as a child. He continued to sing softly into her ear as he stroked the strands of jet against his palm and drew a little smile across his face when he saw that she had stopped her restless tossing and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

  ******

  Melia appeared to remember nothing of his efforts on her behalf the next morning but she her spirits were bright and cheerful, attributing her mood to a good night’s sleep. The day of rest aided Aeron's recovery from his wounds and though he still ached, he was well enough for them to resume their journey the following morning.

  In truth, he did not wish to linger out in the open indefinitely. After battling ogres, Aeron could not be certain that other remnants of Balfure's army were not roaming the banks of the Yantra River. While he was recovered enough to be on the move, if something more formidable than ogres appeared out of the darkness, he was not confident on his ability to defend them both in his current condition. The only safe place at present seemed to be on the river.

  Although Melia would have taken exception to knowing that he felt it his duty to protect her when she was more than capable of doing it herself.

  They travelled for five days up the Yantra River and it was five days that Aeron found extremely enlightening.

  He learned Melia’s father was a distinguished commander of the Nadiran army and she left behind a large family to journey west. Despite their demand she marry, they were not a cruel people, simply rigid in their ways. While he could understand why she had f
led, he also knew that she missed the aunts and cousins left behind. Aeron had laughed when she revealed that she had pretended to be male during her first years in the west, until she unwittingly revealed her gender during the battle of Cereine. The captain who accepted her as one of his own soldiers, cared little for her gender only that she could fight.

  He in turn told Melia of his family, of his mother Syanne to whom he was closest to and while he cared for his brothers Syannon and Hadros, they had little in common. More complicated was the relationship with his father Halion and Hadros, who did not hold with his liking of the outside world and his consorting with other races. While Dare was an inconvenience they tolerated for the sake of Syanne, neither of them could understand why Aeron chose to spend time away from Eden Halas now that the war with Balfure was done.

  Ironically, despite being worlds apart in race and culture, both Aeron and Melia appeared to be fleeing from their families for the same reason.

  ******

  While the woods of Iolan were considered part of Halas, its distance from the court of Kangaloon necessitated the establishment of a smaller colony by one of his vassals, a former Forest Guard Captain called Gavril.

  Lord Gavril was a friend to Aeron since his childhood. The former Captain had fought with his father during the Primordial Wars and was one of the oldest elves in Avalyne. The two men had journeyed together following the end of the war and had grown up together in Sanhael before Mael had destroyed the city and claimed it for his own. The settlement established by Lord Gavril was called Eden Iolan and despite the ancient terrors that lived there, the elves of Eden Iolan had learnt enough about its many paths to avoid falling prey to them.

  Despite his friendship with the King, Gavril was a different sort of elf. While Halion had little time for mortals, Gavril ensured his own Forest Guard kept watch over the woods to ensure travellers were guided away from danger. It was Gavril who taught Aeron all he knew about the bow and his archers were known to be finest in elvendom.

  While most would think otherwise, elves preferred using the sword instead of the bow. Unless an archer had exceptional skill, as did Gavril's archers and now Aeron himself, the density of trees and branches made it problematic for an arrow to find its mark in such close quarters. Archers with moderate skill would find it extremely difficult to properly use a bow and most opted for the blade instead.

  The forest was thick and as soon as they crossed the tree line away from the river bank, the sunlight which had been warming their backs all morning, vanished beneath the thick canopy of leaves overhead. The trees of the Eden Iolan were old, many of them had been standing for hundreds if not thousands of years. They reached into the sky and their barks were sheathed in moss and lichens making them appear likes giant blades of grass.

  Melia tried to see the path that Aeron navigated so effortlessly and found herself lost amongst the waist high shrubs and plants. The terrain was uneven, with boulders and gnarled roots protruding from the rich loamy soil similarly covered with moss. Younger saplings grew next to the older trees with streams of light crisscrossing the place through the thick roof of leaves above.

  ‘What are these ancient evils?’ Melia asked once they had left the boat behind to continue the rest of their journey on foot. ‘Arianne spoke of their menace but did not say what they were.’

  ‘Well,’ Aeron’s eyes were fixed ahead as he read the landscape and followed the unseen path through the forest, ‘there are many that reside here. You know of the spiders we drove out some time ago or rather we thought we did before Caras Anara.’ It still stung Aeron to think of the creatures that had decimated the small coastal town and nearly killed Celene and Arianne.

  Without blinking, Melia countered immediately, ‘I have been instructed by Kyou to tell you that you are to be told it was not your fault if you bring Caras Anara.’ She finished her recital by smiling sweetly at him.

  Aeron made a face. ‘That dwarf thinks he is so smart. Put him on a horse and let us see how smart he is,’ He grumbled before resuming his answer to her question regarding the creatures that roamed these woods.

  ‘It is believed that a plant Primordial called Viridae in the service of Mael was pursued here by the Celestial Atae and upon her death at his hands, scattered her seed across these woods. Much of these ancient evil that I speak of are her progeny. Not all of which I am certain we have seen yet. We know of the Night Hunters, creatures appear only during the dark but appear as harmless shrubs during the day. At night, they take on the shape a creature that moves on four legs and hunt their prey in packs. Anything they find, they kill and devour.’

  Instinctively, Melia’s hand went to her sword since they were in fact surrounded by shrubs.

  ‘Then there are the Asanek, spirits that dwell in tree stumps and can turn themselves into the form of small children. They wander the woods until some well meaning person encounters them believing they are giving aid to a lost child but unaware that at first opportunity they will be eaten. After feeding, these ‘children’ return to their original forms. Of course the worst of these are the Mother Trees.’

  ‘Mother trees?’ Melia asked warily, certain that by the time he was done, she was never again entering any forest ever again.

  ‘Yes, we have no other way to describe them. These are the ones that are most concerning. A mother tree does not move but they can spawn creatures that scour the woods for food to be brought back to her. Over the years, Gavril and his Guard had patrolled the forests of Iolan to ensure that any mortal passing through stays well away from the places were these creatures are known to exist.’

  ‘Well Prince,’ Melia said giving him a look, ‘you have succeeded in seeing to it that I am utterly terrified now.’

  Aeron paused and looked over his shoulder at her, ‘do not worry. I will protect you, fair maiden.’

  Melia snorted.

  Despite the tales he was telling her, Aeron could feel his spirits rising as he took a deep breath of the forest scent. In his youth, he had visited these woods and later on, when Dare was old enough to leave Eden Halas, Aeron had brought him to visit with Gavril who was a very different elf from his own severe father. It almost felt like he was boy again, thrilling in the simple joy of who he was and being happily content by that alone.

  Melia did nothing to dampen his mood because she was rather amused by his boyish demeanour even though everything he described about these woods made her wished to run out of it. Still, it was difficult not to be swept up by his uplifted spirits and it surprised her how much she enjoyed seeing him happy. He seemed familiar with every tree, every path, where there might be danger and which way was safest to travel. Melia supposed she could have found her way through this maze had she attempted this journey alone but after hearing what lived here, she was grateful for his company.

  It was with a sudden start that Melia realised that enjoying his company so much, she had forgotten why she was going to Tor Iolan. Damn him, she fumed inwardly, this was exactly what she feared. He was distracting her!

  ‘How far away are we from Tor Iolan?’ Melia asked suddenly, her tone turning hard.

  ‘Two days from here,’ Aeron replied, noticing that sudden change in her demeanour. He wondered what caused this sudden shift and wished he could be assured of an answer instead of a sharp rebuke if he dared to ask. ‘We will go tomorrow at first light. First we must stop at Eden Iolan.’

  ‘Must we go there?’ She asked with a little more sharpness than she had intended.

  She knew it was wrong to be so abrasive with him but she could not help feeling a little resentment at his being able to make her forget her goal. For so long had she searched for her mother, driven forward when most would have faltered and then finding nothing for her efforts.

  Now that she was in reach of an answer, she was allowing herself to be distracted by a handsome Prince of all things! It was the sort of nonsense little girls dreamed of when they were still playing with their dolls The absurdity of it made Melia
angry at herself for even indulging it. What fool chose to become lost in the eyes of an elf? There was no future with one, nothing but years where he remained beautiful while her body disintegrated before his eyes. It was folly!

  And yet each moment she spent with him, she found herself pulled towards a catastrophe she was powerless to avoid because her heart had betrayed her.

  Aeron stared at her, unable to understand why her mood had become so dark. They had been together for almost a week and in that time their arguments though well frequent were laced with good humour and gentle mischief, not this cold edge that he could feel piercing his skin.

  ‘We have been travelling in Iolan for almost a day and night will be here soon. I do not plan to sleep in the open Melia. We will not see the morning. Furthermore, it is extremely discourteous to enter his realm and not pay our respects to Lord Gavril.’ His tone was equally sharp but she had given him just cause.

  ‘I suppose,’ she muttered sourly realising that perhaps she was being somewhat unreasonable. ‘I have delayed enough in my journey, I wish only to get to Tor Iolan so that I can have my answers.’

  ‘What answers would those be?’ He demanded. Until now he had not asked why she was so determined to reach that misbegotten place because he respected her need for privacy. However, her manner had provoked his own frustration and it frothed to the surface when she spoke so coldly to him.

  ‘I told you,’ she paused in her step and stared at him. ‘That is none of your concern.’

  ‘Lady,’ Aeron started to say but paused and reined in his anger before it overwhelmed him. ‘I told you before if you desire passage through here, you will observe the proper customs!’

  ‘I am not an elf,’ she bit back. ‘I do not have to observe anything!’ With that she stormed past him.

  ‘Melia!’ Aeron called after her.

  Melia ignored him, having every intention of continuing doing so until they reached their destination, wherever it was. However, she had taken no more than a few steps away from him when suddenly, stepping out of the trees like phantoms in the dark were an entire contingent of elven warriors. As a watch guard, she knew how to move stealthily but even she was startled by how flawlessly they stepped out of their hiding places as if they slipped through a tear in the fabric of the forest.