Captive

by Lori Holmes

  It could have been so much worse.

  On the forth day after the attack, Lorhir finally returned bringing reinforcements. He looked smug when he saw that Khalvir was still absent from their number.

  “Still no sign of the other half-breed then?” he taunted.

  Galahir ignored him. “What are the chief’s orders?” He asked dully.

  Lorhir grinned. “The chief has placed me in charge of raiding the elven settlement. I do hope you haven’t been idle, Galahir.”

  Galahir shook his head. “I know where to find the settlement. I can lead you there.”

  “Good,” Lorhir’s face twisted into a smile. He indicated the ten extra men at his back. “Once we are rested we will enter the forest at nightfall. Make sure you are ready.”

  Galahir lowered his head in acknowledgement. Tonight. One last chance. While he had sat brooding upon the edges of camp, his mind had been turning over the terrain he had covered. There was one more place. One more place to try. All he had to do was lead Lorhir in that direction on the way to raiding the elven settlement.

  He hoped to all the gods that this time Khalvir would answer.

  * * *

  The Light Bringer rose and set and he remained alone. He considered letting himself die in this place. Her absence was a wound in his heart that would not heal; the thought that he would not see her again an agony that he could not contain. He lay unfeeling upon the cold, hard ground. He could not bring himself to look at the shelter they had made, much less enter it. He had known true love for the first time and had had the illusion of that love being returned. Now he did not know how he would live without it. He slept fitfully.

  When the first whistle sounded, he ignored it. He did not care. If they did not find him, maybe they would leave.

  Stop, a voice in his head told him, you are raknari, your people still need you. Survival is everything.

  Survival was everything. The ebbing flame of his heart flickered, rousing him. His own feelings did not matter. He had a duty to his people. He might feel that his life had lost all meaning but he was still alive and his life could save theirs one day. That was his purpose. A sad sigh found its way past his lips. It was time to abandon the magic. It was time to go home.

  When the next whistle sounded, he answered mournfully. The thrilling reply came from the distance, acknowledging him. Khalvir fancied he detected a note of relief in the answer.

  A scraping from above had him on his feet in an instant. No! He felt his heart leap even as he felt the dread fill him. She had come back.

  But it was not her face that greeted him as the leaves were pulled asunder. Khalvir stepped back as a man peered down at him with a weary expression. His red-gold skin was lined beneath his silvery white hair. Khalvir felt a thrill of familiarity. He knew at the centre of his being that he should know this man though he could not understand why.

  “So it is true,” the man whispered.

  Khalvir watched the intruder carefully.

  “I had my suspicions,” the older man continued to murmur. It was clear he was talking to himself and was not addressing Khalvir.

  “Who are you?”

  “That does not matter,” the stranger replied

  “Then what do you want?” Khalvir growled threateningly, he was tired and in no mood for any more games. She was gone and that was all that mattered. He just wanted to be left alone.

  “To look on you with my own eyes and see for myself what you have become.”

  Khalvir barked a laugh. “And what do you see, may I ask?”

  “Everything that I ever feared.”

  Khalvir tightened his fists. “Just leave me in peace,” he ground out through his teeth.

  “Nyri has been coming here, hasn’t she?”

  Khalvir pressed his lips together.

  The stranger lifted his chin as though Khalvir’s silence was all the confirmation he needed. “You always were her greatest weakness, same as her mother, same as… your mother. And she is the only one to have survived you, now you have returned to threaten her life, yet again.”

  Agony ripped from somewhere deep inside Khalvir’s chest. The pain of it was astonishing. “Leave!” He stooped to pick up a rock, unable to bear another word.

  “You are going to betray her. That was you calling, wasn’t it, you are bringing your men.”

  “Yes.” He saw no point in denying it.

  “I thought as much. Just know that it is my duty to protect her.”

  Sudden recognition hit him as his eyes lighted on the long scar marring the elf’s jawbone. Baarias. Now he knew why the name was so familiar to him in more ways than one. He had heard it uttered from his own chief’s mouth. This was the very elf who was responsible for it all. Her own teacher. Now he had the advantage. He would wipe the superior look off this man’s face.

  “Are you going to tell her?” he asked, coolly.

  “Tell her what?”

  “Tell her that you betrayed her far worse than I ever could. Are you going to admit how you were the one who healed my chief and in doing so brought about the destruction of everything she holds dear.”

  Khalvir’s words struck their target. His deductions were correct. This was the one. Fury and pain twisted the lined face. The healer composed himself with an effort. “It matters not,” he said. “Just know that I will do what I must. Her life means more to me than anything else, more than my own.”

  Khalvir nodded, accepting the threat. He didn’t need to say more. This man knew what he had done. He wondered if Nyri would turn from him when she learned the truth. He hoped so. That would be his punishment.

  It appeared that Baarias had tired of his visit. He turned away. “Good-bye, sister-son,” he murmured so softly that Khalvir couldn’t be certain of the words. The leaves were replaced and Khalvir was left once again in darkness.

  Khalvir paced the small space, waiting impatiently for his fate to find him. He was under no illusions as to what the old man had told him. He would kill Khalvir to protect Nyri if he had to. Meanwhile, the whistles of his men were getting nearer. It would not be long now. Either Baarias would send the elven tribe to finish him or his own men would come. One way or another, he would be out of this pit by daybreak. It was just a matter of who would get to him first. He didn’t really care which. He folded himself into a corner and waited.

  At last they came.

  “Khalvir! Where are you?” He could hear footsteps above.

  “Galahir!” He called back. “Down here.”

  He heard a faint cry of surprise.

  “Watch your step,” Khalvir cautioned. “The ground is treacherous.”

  His imprisonment was over. He would go back to his life, free of these walls. Or at least, his body would escape. His heart would remain here. He knew he would miss her for the rest of his days. He hoped she was safe now, wherever she was.

  Galahir began to pull the coverings back from the pit. “We’ve managed to slip by their sentries unseen, we’ve been testing them for days. It’s almost impossible to evade them, we need to be quick before we are discovered.”

  Khalvir rose to his feet. Then he paused. Something niggled against his senses. He concentrated harder, focusing as she had taught him. Someone was coming. His heart clenched in sudden fear.

  “Get out of here!” he hissed up to Galahir. “Go! Do nothing until I call!”

  Galahir’s face showed alarm but he knew to obey the tone in Khalvir’s voice. He disappeared from view.

  The presence was getting nearer, running through the undergrowth. Khalvir’s heart pounded in his chest, heavy with dread. If she had come back even after all he had said he didn’t know how he would stop his men from taking her captive.

  A face appeared in the opening Galahir had just made. But it was not her face. It was not even Baarias. This face was new. A young male face. Khalvir noted the angular, birdlike bone structure, the dark hair, the red-gold skin, so similar to Nyri’s own. This man must be her close kin. But
unlike her beloved face this one was twisted into the expression that he had long ago come to expect from one of his kind. An expression of outright hatred. Khalvir coiled his muscles, lips curling back off his teeth.

  “So, Juaan, we meet again,” the stranger hissed. “I was told I would find you here. I hardly dared to believe my luck and yet here you are, offered up to me like a gift from Ninmah herself.”

  Again with the ‘Juaan’. He glared up at the stranger. Baarias had sent him; the healer had not wasted any time.

  “Who are you?”

  A smile twisted over the cruel face and Khalvir felt another shiver of distant recognition curl in his stomach. It was not a pleasant sensation.

  “Surely you remember me? Daajir. The boy you so delighted in tormenting so long ago.

  Daajir! Khalvir tensed at the mention of the hated name. Here was the one who had attacked Nyri.

  And then, as if his thoughts had summoned her, he heard her voice come screaming through the trees. “Daajir! No! Leave him alone!”

  He closed his eyes in despair. All his efforts had been for nothing. There was no way to prevent what was going to happen now and he did not see how he was going to live though it. He should never have called his men. He should have curled up and died here. He just hoped he would have a chance to see this hated figure who gloated above him lying dead at his feet. He gathered his energy. In his rage, it leaped eagerly to his grasp. He prepared to unleash it, to let it do what it would to the elf above.

  “I promised I would see you dead one day, Forbidden,” Daajir said, drawing Khalvir’s own knife into view. The tip was stained purple. “Now I finally get the opportunity I thought robbed from me all those Furies ago.” He drew back his arm with slow relish, preparing to throw. Khalvir bared his teeth and readied himself to release the energy inside him.

  “Nyri! Stop!”

  And suddenly she was there. Khalvir watched, frozen in shock as she smashed Daajir around the back of the head with a rock. Once, twice. The knife dropped from suddenly limp fingers as Daajir crumpled to the ground.

  Nyri stood over her fallen kinsman, trembling from head to foot as blood dripped from the rock in her hand. Her eyes were filled with fear and yet they were resolute. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to him. “I am so sorry.”

  Khalvir could not respond. He locked away his heart to protect himself from what was to come.

  “Nyri.” Baarias appeared, his face full of consternation as he dropped to his knees beside the heap that was Daajir. “What have you done?”

  Nyri did not even look at her teacher as she threw the now well used root over the edge. “Come on,” she rasped, her eyes still riveted upon his.

  Khalvir unlocked his muscles and grabbed hold of the root, controlling his breathing as he pulled himself up, finding the strength he needed. He was a raknari of his clan, bound to obey and serve his chief. If he showed the slightest weakness, his men would turn on him. He climbed out of the hated pit and stood before her.

  His resolve was tested as she threw her arms around him and held him tight. Numb inside, he felt her body against his and tried to commit it to memory, her warmth, her scent. For this was the last time she would hold him so. All too soon she pushed away from him, her expression telling him how much effort it cost her. “Go!” She was sobbing. “Go, get away from here! Leave!”

  He did not move. He stood still as a stone before her. She did not understand yet, the horror that awaited.

  “What are you waiting for? Go!”

  Time for one last touch. He reached out his fingers to stroke her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.

  “I can’t,” he whispered. The moment of shattering had come. He could not protect her. She belonged to his chief now. He withdrew his hand.

  “Why not?” she demanded. “Leave me! They’ll kill you! You need to go. I have given you your freedom!”

  He stared down into the eyes that he loved. His voice was dead. “You have… but I said nothing about being able to give you yours.” He fought to control his expression. “I told you you should have left me to die. It would have been better for the both of us.”

  “W-what,” she choked, still oblivious. “What do you mean? L-leave now, while you still can. I can’t see you hurt.”

  “Nyri! Get away from him,” Baarias shouted, voice wild.

  “I am so very sorry,” he said and whistled out to the waiting Galahir.

  She did not take her gaze from his as Galahir and the rest re-materialised out of the darkness, forcing him to witness the very moment the light went out of her eyes.

  Banak came forward to seize her arm and she did not resist as she continued to stare into Khalvir’s eyes.

  “You!” Baarias was suddenly on his feet, rushing for him. “You will not take her!”

  Lorhir reacted immediately. Before Khalvir could stop him, he had thrown his spear. The weapon caught the older elf high in the chest, throwing him to the ground with a soft gasp.

  “Lorhir, stop!” Khalvir snarled as a very familiar silver-haired she-elf dashed from concealment. She threw herself to the fallen man’s side, hands growing bloody as she wrapped them around the spear.

  From the corner of his eye, he watched Nyri’s knees buckle at the sight of her felled teacher. Only Banak’s grip on her arm kept her upright.

  I’m so sorry.

  “Are there more of them close by?” Galahir whispered to Khalvir.

  “Yes,” he answered, not even realising he was still using the elven tongue in his numb state. “Yes they are all in the settlement. It is a full moon. They will not venture far.” He made a hand gesture, directing them into the trees.

  Banak dropped Nyri’s arm in his eagerness to obey. She did not have the strength to hold herself up and she collapsed to the ground. His throat tightened at the sight of it.

  “No.” She crawled on her hands and knees to kneel at his feet. His own knees trembled and he locked them in place. “No please,” she beseeched. “Take me. Just take me. Leave my people. I’m a healer. I am everything your people want. Please. Grant me this one thing. Leave my people be. I’ll do whatever you ask.” She clutched at his furs, her eyes full of anguish.

  “You will die.” He heard the words fall from his lips.

  “Please. Please.”

  And he could not do it. Even for his own life. Her hold on him was too strong. He was ruined. “What is it about you?” he murmured to her, then raised his head and damned himself to his fate. “Leave her people.”

  His men turned to him, startled. Lorhir pulled the concealing skull from his head, revealing features twisted with rage. “You would disobey the orders of your own chief! You-”

  Fury surged through Khalvir’s limbs as he unleashed his pain and anger upon Lorhir. He struck out with his fist, catching the hated man across the nose before he could even blink. The bone crunched satisfyingly on impact

  “I said, leave her people.” But he knew that was all that was in his power. She had admitted her skill to his men. Lorhir understood the elf tongue almost as well as he did. If he did not take her now, they would turn on him. “This one is valuable enough, take her and the other girl. Leave the old man. He won’t make it.”

  Galahir moved to pull the silver-haired girl away from her fallen kinsman.

  “No!” Nyri rasped. “Please. Just me.”

  Be still, you fool. You have already sealed both our dooms. He glared at her. “I have done all I can for you. Be silent and ask no more. Accept if you are to live.”

  Her fate was now in his chief’s hands.

  He turned his back on her and walked away without another glance. He was free. But he knew his freedom was a lie. He was still captive. He had believed once that the pit would become his tomb. He could not have guessed then that it would become the tomb for his own heart. A heart he was leaving further behind with every step he took.

  The night closed around Khalvir’s soul and did not let go.

  About t
he Author

  Lori Holmes was born in the West Midlands region of England. Having had a misspent youth devouring everything science fiction and fantasy, Lori enjoys reading and writing books that draw a reader into new and undiscovered worlds with characters that are hard to part with long after the journey comes to end.

  Lori’s debut novel, The Forbidden, begins the epic journey into the Ancestors Saga, combining history, mystery and legend to retell a lost chapter in humanity’s dark and distant past.

  You can connect with me on:

  https://www.loriholmes.com

  https://www.facebook.com/loriholmesauthor

  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B06XBFF5RR

  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lori-holmes

  Also by Lori Holmes

  The Forbidden: getbook.at/forbidden-bm

  Daughter of Ninmah: getbook.at/daughter-of-ninmah-bm

  Captive: getbook.at/captive-bm

  Enemy Tribe (Launching December 2020)

  Survival (Launching 2021)

  Raknari (Launching 2021)