Nightborn

by Anders, Lou

  Sniff sniff sniff!

  “What is that stuff?” said Thianna.

  “It’s catswort,” he explained. “Also called catnip. It drives cats crazy. Apparently, our friend here likes it better than eating us.”

  Much better. Girl smell bad. Sniff sniff! More more more!

  “Apparently so,” said Thianna. “Um, good kitty. Snake. Kitty snake.”

  Good kitty snake! Yes! Sniff sniff sniff!

  “Karn, save some of that.”

  Karn clutched the pouch back to his chest.

  “You want more?” Thianna asked.

  Yes! More! Kitty snake want more!

  “We can do that. But we have a problem of our own. Maybe you can help us with it.”

  What problem bad smell big girl have? Me help, give more sniff sniff?

  “Yes.”

  “We’re stuck in a pit.” Thianna gestured around.

  Bad elves put us all here.

  “Yes. But can you get us out?”

  For an answer, the tatzelwurm sprang again, right up and out of the pit. Then its long tail flopped over the edge. It hung all the way to the ground.

  Climb! instructed the tatzelwurm. Climb. Give more sniff sniff!

  —

  Karn and Thianna burst out of the lumber mill, with the tatzelwurm cavorting merrily around them. The scene outside was chaos. Wood elves clashed with dark elves in a fierce battle. The wood elves’ faces were masked, but they carried the distinctive buckler shield of the Order of the Oak. They fought with swords and bows. The Underhand agents of the dark elves fought with maces, daggers, darts, and short swords.

  Karn saw Leflin Greenroot dueling fiercely with Yelor. Then they were spotted and several dark elves broke off from their melees to engage with him and Thianna.

  Unfortunately for the elves, Thianna had a much longer reach. She knocked them around savagely with her ice club. They hung back after that, moving apart to try to split her focus. Karn wished again that he had a weapon.

  “Now, this I’m going to enjoy,” said Tanthal, stepping out from the shadow of a building and approaching Karn. He held a sword, grinning. It was Karn’s father’s sword.

  “That’s mine,” the Norrønur boy said.

  “All the more perfect when I cut you down with it,” the Svartálfar boy replied. “It’s quite a prize.” Tanthal pretended to admire the blade. “Even if the red-gold tint is a bit garish for my taste. I think I’ll call it Norrønbane. And use it specially for killing Norrønir.”

  Karn spoke through gritted teeth.

  “The sword already has a name.”

  “I’m sure it’s had several. Now it’s Norrønbane.”

  “The sword’s name is”—Karn’s voice rose to a shout—“Whitestorm!”

  Suddenly, the blade jumped of its own volition. It shot from Tanthal’s grasp, almost pulling the elf over as it flew from him. Whitestorm crossed the distance between them, reversing its point as it did so. Karn gaped as the hilt settled comfortably into his hand.

  “You c-c-can call your sword?” Tanthal stammered in shock.

  “I guess so,” said Karn. “It looks like a dragon’s gifts keep on giving.” Reunited with his weapon, he adjusted his stance for a fight. “Now, you were saying?”

  Tanthal spat and drew both a mace and a dagger. He came at Karn swiftly.

  Karn raised Whitestorm to block the first strike, but Tanthal’s dagger was right behind it. Karn kicked the elf hard in the side, knocking him back and throwing off his strike.

  Tanthal recovered and came at Karn again and again. The third time, Karn caught the blade of the dagger and, with a twist of his wrist, sent it clattering to the ground.

  “Nice,” said Thianna, suddenly beside him. “I took care of my two and came to see if you need help. But you don’t seem to.”

  “I’ve been practicing,” Karn replied. “Hey, I’m no fool. Every day for an hour since the battle at Dragon’s Dance.”

  Faced with two attackers and short one weapon, Tanthal chose to flee. Karn let him go. Now that he had found Thianna, his concern was getting her to safety. Then he had a thought.

  “Hey, where’s the tatzelwurm?” he asked.

  Thianna pointed.

  The kitty snake was having the time of its life. Clearly still giddy under the influence of the catswort, it was pouncing on one dark elf after another. With an exultant caterwaul, it would come leaping out of the sky to knock a hapless elf into the dirt. Then it would bound again, soaring into the air and returning to earth to crush another unfortunate elf beneath it.

  Fun fun fun! Pounce pounce pounce! Sniff sniff sniff! it said in Thianna’s mind. Several dark elves decided to make a run for it. The tatzelwurm noticed them and set off in joyous pursuit.

  “I’m not certain it’s coming back,” Thianna said, laughing.

  “That’s probably just as well,” Karn replied. “I wasn’t sure what to do when the catswort ran out.”

  Between the springing kitty snake and the Order of the Oak, the battle was quickly winding down, though it looked as if the dark elves had given nearly as good as they got. Several of the wood elves were injured, and a few of them were down.

  “Can’t say it hasn’t been fun,” said Thianna.

  “True,” replied Karn. “But I’ll be glad when we’re home.”

  “Home?”

  “Well, yes. We can go home now.”

  “Whoa!” said the giantess. “I’m not going ‘home.’ ”

  “Why not? The horn is gone. The dark elves have been stopped. We can go tell Orm he has nothing to worry about.”

  “You go tell him. I’m headed to Thica.”

  “I didn’t come here for Orm. I came here for you.”

  “I didn’t ask you to,” said Thianna, a touch of resentment in her voice. “I’m here to see the world. You want to see it with me, great.”

  “You tried the world,” Karn argued. “It was dangerous. I had to rescue you from the world. Now it’s time to go.”

  “Technically, neither of you are going anywhere,” said Greenroot. The wood elf had approached while they were quarreling. Karn saw that he had a vicious cut across one eye and into his cheek, but he didn’t seem to feel it.

  “What are you talking about?” said Karn. “The horn is gone. The dark elves have been stopped. You have the shield and the key. You can follow the trail if you want or bury it forever. You don’t need us, and you don’t need to worry about us.”

  “And you owe us,” said Thianna. “Seems like we’ve done all your work for you.”

  “True, you’ve alerted us to our own forgotten history. And led us to our enemies.”

  “But?” said Karn.

  “But you and your friend are loose ends who know too much. I told you that the Order plays a long game. Weighing the good of the whole world on a timeline of centuries.”

  Several wood elves had appeared to surround them now.

  “So we’re what? Your prisoners?”

  “Let’s call you our guests for now.”

  “Guests who can’t leave,” complained Thianna. “How are you better than they are?” She gestured to where the surviving dark elves had been rounded up and disarmed. Karn saw that both Tanthal and Desstra were among the captives. Despite himself, he was glad that Desstra was still alive. He still had a hard time separating the wood elf who had been his friend from the dark elf who had betrayed him.

  “We’re better because the Underhand would use the horn to lay waste to the surface world, whereas the Order of the Oak exists to prevent such things from happening.”

  “So if you have to disappear a few kids, that’s all right,” said Thianna.

  Greenroot had the decency to look away.

  Karn glowered. None of this had anything to do with him. He had come to save his friend, and now he had to convince a secret society that he didn’t care a flip about that he didn’t care a flip about its secrets, either. Neth take both the Order and the Underhand! He glared at the
wood elves and the dark elves.

  “Hey,” said Karn, suddenly alert. “What’s Tanthal doing?”

  The dark elf had something in his lips. Karn saw that he was blowing on a small, thin whistle. It didn’t make any sound that he could hear, but then Karn had experience with instruments meant for other ears than human.

  With a screeching noise, a swarm of enormous creatures suddenly dropped out of the sky. Karn thought they were wyverns at first. Then he saw that they were giant bats.

  The hind claws of the bats raked at the wood elves, driving them back. The Order of the Oak raised their bows. Several of the creatures were brought down. But Tanthal and Desstra managed to climb onto the backs of two of them. In seconds, they were far overhead.

  Greenroot swore. He grabbed a bow and fired a clearly useless arrow after them.

  “They’re gone,” he said.

  “You can’t go after them?” asked Karn. “You don’t have any way to fly?”

  “No, we don’t,” Greenroot replied.

  Karn looked at Thianna. He had come all this way for her. He thought his journey was nearly over. Now the dark elves were heading to Gordasha, armed with the second and third stanza of the riddle. Flying, they’d be there in days or sooner. Whereas on foot or horseback, it would be weeks before the Order of the Oak could follow. The Horn of Osius would fall into the dark elves’ hands. He hated what he was going to say, but he had no choice. It was the right thing.

  “We do,” said Karn. “And now it looks like we’re your only hope.”

  “You just left them behind.”

  Desstra clung to Flittermouse. The cold night air blowing through her hair did nothing to cool her temper. The star-filled sky was wasted on her as well. She was grateful the bat had rescued her, but furious that Tanthal had abandoned the rest of their team.

  “The bats can only carry one person each,” Tanthal explained. He rode beside her on his own wing, close enough that they could talk. He was smug and completely unapologetic. Desstra felt he was treating their quest for the horn like a game of capture the banner. He didn’t care who got hurt. His only concern was that he was winning.

  “But you didn’t even try to help them,” she protested. “We fled and left them to their fate.”

  “You’re welcome to turn around,” the dark elf replied. “I’m sure it will make their defeat so much more bearable if you go down with them.”

  Desstra scowled at him, but she made no move to alter Flittermouse’s course. What could she do on her own?

  “We have a mission,” Tanthal went on. “That mission is more important than any one person. Their sacrifice will mean our success.”

  “Your success.”

  “Of course. And your graduation. Remember that.”

  “How could I forget?” she said. You never let me, she thought. In need of a distraction, she checked the supplies in Flittermouse’s saddlebags. She had extra gear, including another set of her darts. In the east, the horizon was beginning to glow in anticipation of the rising of the sun. Dark elves hated sunlight. But she hadn’t minded it so much when she was pretending to be Nesstra the wood elf.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” said Tanthal, misinterpreting her expression. “I suspect we haven’t seen the last of that Norrønur boy you like so much.”

  “I don’t like him,” she said, too quickly.

  “Good. Because I have a thought.”

  “Whatever it is, I’m sure it can wait until you’re more intelligent.”

  “My thought is this,” continued Tanthal, unruffled. “The next time we encounter Karn Korlundsson, we should kill him.”

  “Kill him?” Nesstra said.

  “Of course. And you should be the one to do it.”

  “Me?” She had already betrayed Karn. But after he had saved her life, could she really kill him?

  “A great idea, don’t you think?” Tanthal asked. “What better way to prove that you can be strong as the rock of our home? Think of it as your final exam.”

  —

  Oh wonderful. More humans.

  The wyvern was perched in the lower branch of a beech tree. Its tail was coiled around the limb for balance while it tore greedily into a rabbit with its teeth.

  “Actually, these are elves,” said Thianna. Karn had led her, Greenroot, and several other wood elves across the bridge and to the location in the Blackfire Forest where the wyvern had remained hidden.

  Do you think I care about the difference? it thought in Thianna’s mind. If it weren’t for you and your kind, I’d be far from here. Nesting on a mountain peak so high none of you could ever climb it. Well, maybe you could. But you take my point.

  “It’s good to see you, too,” Thianna said.

  If I were glad to find you still alive, the wyvern thought, it would be a tiny emotion buried beneath my irritation at encountering all these strangers.

  “This is the creature you came on?” Greenroot said, incredulous.

  “Yes,” said Karn. “Thianna first, and then it brought me.”

  “With such a large wingspread, it can overtake the bats. And they can only travel by night. The sun will be up soon. We can get to Gordasha ahead of them.”

  “We?” said Karn.

  “Neither you nor Thianna are experienced warriors. It only makes sense for two of us to go in your place.”

  I did not sign on for this, thought the wyvern.

  “You want to ride it,” said Thianna, “you’re welcome to try.”

  The reptile snarled and bared its fangs.

  Over quite a few of their dead bodies.

  “Relax,” the giantess said to the wyvern. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

  “You’re talking to it? You understand it?” asked Greenroot, who like everyone else present was only getting one half of the conversation.

  “Yup,” said Thianna. “And it’s not real happy to see you.”

  That’s putting it mildly. Although only Thianna could hear it, the wyvern hissed again to demonstrate its displeasure.

  “See?” said Karn. “Only we can ride it. Only she can talk to it.”

  “You’re going to let us go now,” said Thianna. “And you’re going to trust us to fix your mess for you.”

  “But we won’t be bringing the horn back to you,” said Karn. “We’ll be taking it to Orm so he can destroy it.”

  “Destroy it?” There were shouts of objections from the other wood elves.

  “It’s that or the dark elves get it,” said Thianna. “Take it or leave it.”

  Greenroot frowned, then he nodded.

  “Very well. We will trust you to see this through. Such trust does not come easy for us. But it seems the circumstances demand that we learn.”

  The wood elves gave Karn and Thianna what supplies they had, as well as some coins. They offered them each a bow and a quiver of arrows, but neither Karn nor Thianna knew how to use them. Thianna settled for a sword, having lost the one given her by Orm. It was a type known as an arming sword, a one-handed weapon with a straight, double-edged blade and a simple cross-guard. The elves kept the scutum shield and key.

  As they were preparing to depart, Karn swatted at several insects that were buzzing around the phosphorescent stone on the cord around his neck. They were attracted by its light, and more and more of them were coming as the morning approached.

  “Does anyone have a small cloth bag?” he asked. “Something soft. I’ve got an idea.”

  After Karn had put his notion into effect, it was time for goodbyes.

  “You’ve more than proved yourself,” Greenroot said. He reached into a pocket and handed something to Karn. “It’s time we honored that.”

  “What is this?” asked Karn. He held a small silver ring in his hand. The face of the ring was cast in the same tree stump design of the bucklers.

  “It marks you as a friend to those who know,” the wood elf said. “You may find it will open doors for you that are otherwise closed. At the very least, it may spar
e you a knife in the back.”

  “Um, thanks,” said Karn, slipping the ring onto a finger. “Though the friend I trust more than anyone is standing right next to me.”

  Are all humans as talkative as these? thought the wyvern as it carried them into the sky.

  “Elves,” said Thianna. “Those were elves.”

  —

  “So what is Gordasha, anyway?” asked Thianna.

  “According to Greenroot,” replied Karn, “it’s the capital of the Sacred Gordion Supremacy. Though apparently there isn’t much left of the Supremacy but the capital.”

  Karn was seated in front of Thianna as they rode the wyvern, feeling a bit like a little kid pressed against the much larger girl. They had tried the reverse, but he couldn’t see anything around her wide shoulders, and her long hair whipping in the wind was always in his face.

  “I thought the Gordion Empire fell a thousand years ago,” she said.

  “It did,” Karn explained. “Or rather nine hundred eighty-three years ago. It broke in half then. The Supremacy is sort of the last gasp of one of those halves.”

  “Okay. But do you even know where it is?”

  “Hey, I spent hours last night poring over maps at Greenroot’s house. I probably know this whole continent better than anyone who isn’t a professional mapmaker by now.”

  “New career for you? Cartographer?” Thianna teased. “If farm boy or tavern owner doesn’t work out.”

  “Right. I’d have to learn how to draw first. Though come to think of it, maybe I could make a game of it. Some sort of war game, moving armies around on a map. What do you think?”

  “Maybe. What do you use for the playing pieces?”

  “Bats,” said Karn with sudden urgency.

  “You use bats for the pieces?”

  “No! Bats!” Thianna looked where Karn was pointing. Directly ahead of them, she saw their enemy.

  “How are they even flying in the daytime?” she asked. “The sun’s been up for hours. Aren’t bats nocturnal?”

  “How should I know?” said Karn. “But there is no way we’ll pass them without being spotted.”

  Sure enough, the dark elves caught sight of the wyvern. The bats flew apart, circling in a wide arc in an obvious attempt to flank them.

  “I’m wishing now we’d taken one of those bows,” said Thianna, though she knew that she could never fire it effectively in the rushing air.