Elemental Betrayal

by Toni Cox

  That night, comfortable in the arms of her brother, she finally slept a dreamless sleep.

  Blaid sat on his haunches and looked at the bloody mess before him. He had not intended to kill this man; he only wanted to question him; but the man had attacked, ferociously, and in the end Blaid had been forced to end it. He now looked at the grotesquely broken body and wondered who he was.

  Almost two Moons had passed since he had left Thala Yll. He had roamed far during that time, but his aim had been the same. His new mission was all he could think about and he tackled it with the single-mindedness typical of a Prime. The spoor had eventually led him to Braérn, but he had lost the scent within the vast city. He had prowled the countryside around it, following some other scent, when he had become aware of her. Racing back to the city he realised that Maia was indeed in Braérn, and so was the other one. He snarled now at the thought of how close Maia had come to death without her realising it. It was in his nature to feel when someone was close to death and the intensity with which he felt Maia’s frightened him more than anything else in his life. But as suddenly as the threat had come, so it had disappeared. He could not explain it; it was as if his quarry had simply vanished.

  The day before he had crept back into Braérn, to reassure himself that Maia was, indeed, all right and when he found that her brother was now by her side, he decided to continue to pursue the other scent that had led him into the countryside in the first place. He tracked all night, following the spoor of a horse, moving at speed.

  At first, he was uncertain. The trail he was following belonged to an Elf on his horse; but after a while the spoor of the horse overlapped some older spoor of Vampyres. To his surprise, the Elf on his horse was heading in the same direction the Vampyres had travelled and as the night turned into morning, he came to a place where he knew they had met. It was a small homestead, uninhabited from the look of it, and the signs that Vampyres had been here recently were evident everywhere. He searched the place and not only did he find the horse dead and half eaten behind the barn, but he also found the man hiding within the empty house. The situation was so strange that he changed and, for the man’s benefit, found some clothes to don, and then sat down with the man to talk.

  Although scared at first, the man stubbornly refused to tell him anything. Blaid was nice to him, then threatened him when he did not get the desired result, but in the end the man shouted at him that they would kill him anyway, dived behind a table to retrieve his sword and then attacked. Although the man was not very skilled, he fought with a ferocity that astounded Blaid. He tried to simply evade the man’s advances, but as the man’s rage took over in his mind, Blaid felt from his Eläm everything he needed to know. He was in league with the Vampyres, aiding them. He felt like they had been waiting for something and the man had come to tell them that the time had come. Images of Maia flashed through his mind as he beheld the man’s Eläm and then Death took over. He changed, tearing the clothes, and scattering them around him. Within moments Blaid not only killed, but completely mutilated the man; the taste of his Elven blood sickeningly sweet in his mouth. He felt sorry now that it had come to that; he had never killed another Elf before. Sure, he had assisted in many deaths, but his Prime powers worked differently. This; he looked down at the bloody remains one more time; was murder.

  Feeling revolted with himself, he moved away from the homestead. His main target was still out there somewhere and he would find him. But as he moved across the fields away from the house, he picked up yet another scent. This one was completely foreign to him; yet strangely familiar. It was a big beast, dangerous, and even here the smell of Vampyre and Elf lingered. Something more sinister than he had originally imagined was afoot and it was now more urgent than ever that he find what he was looking for.

  “Why did we not stay at this inn when we came to Braérn last year?” Maia asked as she got dressed.

  They had reached Juniper Inn during the late afternoon on their second day of travel. They had stabled the horses and then sat around the hearth of the inn until late in the evening, telling stories. She had enjoyed herself, but she had been all too aware of how Jaik had watched her interact with Riker. They had become so familiar with each other, that she had never really noticed how often Riker touched her. They were little gestures, completely innocent, but under the watchful eyes of her brother, they now seemed incredibly intimate and inappropriate. She sensed no disapproval from her brother, but his eyes spoke the warning that his mouth would not. Decorum dictated that Riker ask permission first and even then, they would have to be discrete until the time came that it would be officially announced.

  “The people were away at the time,” Jaik replied, pulling on his mail hauberk over his shirt. “Come, my little sister,” he finally said, “let me take you for breakfast.”

  Rothea and Riker joined them in the common room where they took their breakfast, but they did not linger long. The day promised to be hot and they wanted to be on their way as soon as possible.

  With Commander Ridgewell and his Regiment in the lead and Jaik’s Guard bringing up the rear, they moved out. The landscape past the lodge was dominated by gently rolling hills that were criss-crossed by streams and small forests of deciduous trees that were starting to come into bloom. It was easy travelling and they made good time. By noon they stopped to water the horses by a stream that dissected a stand of maples and oaks. They had just taken out their own lunch, when Maia noticed that the horses were getting restless. She stepped up to Fire and laid a hand on his neck. He shook his head and she felt his body tremble.

  “Something is not right,” she said to Jaik. “The horses are agitated.”

  Quickly Jaik and Commander Ridgewell got their men to spread out to search the area around them. Riker stood protectively next to Maia.

  “I do not sense anyone,” she said to him, “only the animals.”

  “I can feel their agitation as well. I don’t think the threat is coming from the outside. There is something about this place…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but started scanning the surrounding trees.

  Maia closed her eyes and opened her senses further, trying to pick up the individual Eläm of the people and animals around her. The horses were frightened, most of the people were weary and nervous, but the other animals; tree squirrels, birds, bugs, and ants; were in a neutral state. Then she noticed something else. She first felt it, an annoyance creeping over her that slowly built to a defensive rage; and then she heard it. She opened her eyes in alarm.

  “Syphons,” she screamed, just as the swarm descended on them.

  Horses whinnied and then, bucking and kicking ran off into the distance. The warriors that had spread out to look for the danger turned around and raced back towards them, but there was nothing they could do.

  It was spring and mating season for the syphons; wasp-like insects, each the length of a man’s palm. They had large stingers on their rear, with which they would stab and immobilise their prey. Then they had long, tube-like mouths, with which they would then suck out the insides of their prey through the hole they had made with their stingers. The venom in the stingers acted in such a way as to soften the tissue of their prey, so it could easily be siphoned up the drinking tubes. As an Elf, being stung by a syphon was not only painful, but could be fatal.

  The syphons must have been building their nests in the trees around them and being disturbed by the Elves’ presence, had become defensive. The swarm, at least a hundred strong, buzzed around them, stinging everything they came into contact with. People screamed as they were stung, desperately trying to get the insects off them. Maia, still open to the Eläm around her, felt not only the stings inflicted on her, but also those of the others. She could not focus her energy to calm the creatures as the pain was simply too much to bear. She struggled, now crawling, trying to get to the shallow stream. As she crawled, she was being stung on her bare arms, her neck, her face, and hands and soon her vision dimmed and she collapsed, finall
y lying still.

  Aaron was on the archery field with Jasmin. She had been taking him there for a few Quarters now and he was getting better. The Day of the Hunt celebration was only another fortnight hence and he was determined to impress Maia again. He had done well during the Spring Feast celebrations and he would prove himself to her again.

  “No, Papa, keep your elbow straight,” his daughter said to him and adjusted the angle of his arm minutely. “Now focus; I know you can do this.”

  At twenty paces, he had proven himself to be a pretty good shot. At thirty paces, he had struggled for a while, but eventually his aim had become true. Now Jasmin had put the target at fifty paces and he had as yet to hit the large straw dummy. He was getting a little frustrated with himself, but he persisted; it would all be worth it in the end.

  Although the initial Moons on Elveron had been difficult for him, over time he had come to realise what a wondrous place it was. His body was slowly changing; becoming more Elf-like; and his senses were now able to perceive things that he would never before have been able to notice. His eye-sight was keener, his sense of smell stronger and his hearing was incredible.

  He had never noticed that a forest did not simply smell like forest, but rather of the millions of living organisms that inhabited it. Hundreds of different species of trees made up the forest. He was slowly learning all their names and properties. Plants, flowers, mushrooms, and other green matter; the earth and the insects living within it; the mammals and birds that dwelt within the forest; everything had its own distinct smell and together it smelled like forest. He often sat on his veranda, looking out into the trees and tried to first identify a smell and then search for the plant or animal emitting it. Luke and Jasmin sometimes joined him and they had made it a game of who could identify the most. But what impressed him about the forest the most was the sheer size of the trees. He had learned about forests during history class on Earth and there the trees had grown to a maximum of about a hundred feet. Here, some of the trees stood at least four hundred feet high and their base could be as thick as an entire house. They were magical and he could not imagine why the Humans on Earth had cut all their forests down. Now, having lived here and seen what nature is like, he could not imagine ever going back there. Earth was a dismal place compared to the paradise that was Elveron.

  He was also stronger and faster and working with the Elves on a daily basis gave him that extra push to try even harder. Working with the Builders, and from time to time the Carpenters, was the most satisfying job he had ever had. Their ingenuity had no limits and he was amazed every day at what they managed to accomplish without technology or electricity. Most of it was simple mechanics, but incredible in its simplicity.

  But then there were also the crystals and the materium; he had struggled with their concept in the beginning, but he was learning. There were different types of crystals, exhibiting different properties. The simple ones, available in a range of colours, were used for illumination. Other ones, the dark blue ones were the strongest, were surrounded by some kind of force field and when they were arranged in a certain order within a structure, they could be made to be used like electricity. These crystals were rare and expensive and therefore not often used.

  Materium, however, was a material that seemed to be readily available. Also mined in the mountains like the crystals, it looked somewhat like a mix between granite and crystal. It only exuded a very faint glow and during the day it was almost imperceptible. The Elves had explained that the materium worked with the magnetic core of the planet; pushing away from it, like reverse gravity; and so could be used to lift things. He had been skeptical at first as to how such a small piece of rock could carry such heavy weights and, although he still had no real scientific explanation for it, he had seen it work many times. The day they had arrived on Elveron, the Elves that found them by Greystone had put Maia on a floating stretcher. He had been too overwhelmed by everything that was happening at the time to have paid much attention to it, but as time went by he became increasingly aware of how frequently it was used. Wagons, used to haul vegetables from the fields, were pulled by horses, but floated behind them on just two cylinders of materium. The cylinders, used to channel the power of the materium in the right direction, were made from glass. The size of the materium depended on the power required. One only had to fasten the cylinder underneath whatever one wished to lift, centre the load so it would not shift and the materium would do the rest. Silas had explained that there were very precise calculations one had to apply in order to get the ratio right. If one were to attach a large piece of materium to a small item, it would float too high; too small a piece and it would not be strong enough to lift a heavy item. Working on repairing a neighbour’s veranda for a Quarter, he had finally been able to acquire a piece of materium for himself. He had experimented with it for long evenings and although it had been exceedingly interesting, he still had no idea how it worked.

  And then there was thryll. It was a compound found in a whole range of plants, as well as a vast variety of wild life. It was what made them glow at night. Bio-luminescence was the word that came to his mind, but he would not have been able to put it into the Elven language. There were still a lot of words that he could not translate from English and the longer they were here, the less it mattered to them. Thryll fascinated him; it was all around them and he had begun cataloging everything that contained thryll. Luke said that Silas had a large volume about these animals and plants within his cave, but Aaron enjoyed discovering and learning by himself. Besides the Lumina flowers; of which they now had at least ten in their house; there were tiny red tree frogs, green mushrooms with yellow stripes, caterpillars in either blue or orange with long white hairs, ivy-like climbing plants of a vivid shade of red and purple-crested lizards. All of them were spectacular to watch at night and the more he learned, the more he wanted to know.

  Luke and Jasmin were thrilled with his progress and how well he had adjusted. For them it had been easy from the beginning; their minds still young enough to adjust quickly. Luke’s training as a Healer with Silas was going very well and he was now capable enough that he did minor house calls without his teacher.

  Jasmin; working as a Hunter; brought in most of their food. She always got a share of meat from the day’s hunt, as well as vegetables for her effort. It still amazed him how efficiently the trading system worked; there was no greed and nobody ever went without.

  One of the things he struggled with in the beginning was Archer. From the moment they had arrived, the young Elf had an eye for his daughter. Being of Earth, he had been wary of the man, assuming the worst. But as he came to understand the traditions of the Elves he had learned that his daughter was quite safe. Once Aaron had settled down enough, Archer had approached him; as was their custom; and had asked him to court his daughter. Aaron had made inquires as to what this courting entailed and had been pleasantly surprised that Elves did not have sex before marriage. He had given his blessing to them, but had retained the right to determine the appropriate time for them to marry. For the moment, this seemed to be enough for Jasmin and Archer and he had never seen his daughter this happy.

  It made him a little envious that she had found such happiness; he still missed Lisa, even though he now knew for certain that Maia had been Lisa while she was on Earth. Once he had realised that, he had promised himself that he would win her back. But this had proven to be more difficult than anything else he had attempted before. Not only was she the princess of these people, but she was also this magical being with powers he still not fully understood. The burdens she had to bear, he now knew, weighed heavily on her, and saving her people during the war had taken its toll on her. He had been by her side right through the tough winter Moons, often just sitting with her in silence. She had seemed so lonely and it had broken his heart to see her that way. But the more time he spent with her, the more responsive she became to him. He knew it would still take a long while before she could see him as someone
she could spend her life with, but he was working on it. It was the driving force behind his eagerness to learn everything he could and to become that someone she would eventually chose to be her mate.

  Relaxing into his stance, he narrowed his eyes and zeroed in on the target; like Jasmin had said, he could do this. He took a breath and then, as he let it out, released the bolt from his crossbow. The whoop of joy from Jasmin told him that his aim had been true, but he had known already; nothing and no-one would be able to stand in his way to achieving his goal. Maia would be his.

  “Kanarel, to your left.” Jaik pointed to a bag lying next to a maple tree. “Thank you,” he said when Kanarel finally brought it.

  The swarm of syphons had caused absolute chaos; half the people were down with injuries, the horses had all fled, all their possessions were strewn about and worst of all, Maia was unconscious. Those who had not been stung or were still able to move about had begun to assist the injured. They were moving them all to the edge of the stream, so they would have easy access to water. Everyone was doing what they could, but Kanarel acted as if it all did not matter much to him. Jaik was not only worried about his people, but also in a panic about Maia and he could ill afford someone so indifferent and incompetent when they really needed every able hand to help.