by S A McClure
Her feet slipped over crumbling ground. She leapt backwards and slammed into one of the magic-wielding elves.
“Sorry,” she mumbled as she ducked beneath the elf’s outstretched arm and rushed to where Chiara and Micah both lay on the ground.
The golems began pounding on the ground in unison. More cracks appeared. Emma dropped to the ground and looped her arm around Micah’s neck and held on tightly as the ground shifted beneath them. She wrapped her legs around Chiara. She didn’t know how long she would be able to hold onto them if the ground beneath them completely gave out, but she hoped they’d be able to survive whatever fall was in store for them.
The elves suddenly stopped firing at the golems. Instead, they laid their bows down and began chanting in a tongue Emma didn’t recognize.
Thousands of starbugs fluttered into the clearing. They glowed brilliantly, casting out all shadows.
One of the elves from in the inner ring stepped forward, her arms outstretched and her face serene.
She sang, her voice rising and falling in a melody that pulled at the back of Emma’s memory. It was eerily beautiful and sad all at the same time.
A loud boom reverberated across the clearly. Everything happened so quickly: Emma’s ears rang and her head whipped backwards at the explosion. The starbugs burst into a plume of smoke and shimmering light. A translucent dome formed all around them as boulders, dust, and rubble clattered on top of them.
The dome protected them from being smashed to bits.
Emma clutched onto Micah as one rock landed directly above her. She cringed as it harmlessly rolled down the side of the dome and thudded to the ground.
Her chest tightened.
Iris was still out there. She hadn’t been with them. She could be hurt.
Emma began breathing rapidly and shallowly. Her mind hazed from the lack of oxygen reaching her brain. Tears stung her eyes and it was all she could do to continue holding onto Micah and Chiara as the last of the golems exploded.
She leapt to her feet. Dust sparkled as it caught moonlight. It coated everything. She coughed as she stepped beyond the magical barrier. Rubble shifted under her feet as she slowly made her way across the clearing. Her eyes stung from the debris landing in them.
“Iris!” she called.
No response.
Frantically, she shoved aside larger boulders and tried to determine the best path across the field. She tripped as one of the rocks rolled beneath her feet, twisting her ankle. She grunted in pain, but forced herself to apply weight to the injured leg as she continued looking for her sister.
Something shifted to her left. She spun towards the sound. Hope swelled within her. She’d thought she’d lost Micah and Chiara today. They had been fine. There was no reason to assume that Iris would be any different. She’d been further away from the fight, anyway. The trees should have provided a modicum of protection.
More rocks shifted under her feet and she stumbled forward, falling on her knees. A jagged piece of rock punctured her leg, right below her kneecap. She screamed. The jagged rock remained wedged in her leg as she stood.
“Iris!” she called again, her voice breaking. She couldn’t find her. She attempted taking a step forward, but her now twice injured leg collapsed beneath her weight.
Eldridge glided over the rubble as if it were a smooth cobblestone road. He stooped to examine her leg and made a tsking.
“You’re going to be alright,” he said as he laid a cool hand on her forehead. She didn’t have to time react as her entire body became numb. He pulled a water skin from his belt and uncorked it. Using two fingers, he pried her lips open and poured some of the contents down her throat.
It tasted like burnt gizzards and moldy cheese. She choked and he closed her lips until she swallowed all the contents. He released her mouth, then examined her injuries again. There was a loud squelching noise as he pulled the rock from her leg. Strangely, she didn’t feel the pain.
He leaned over her legs and began doing something. Emma could not tell what since she couldn’t feel anything. She tried to ask, but her lips wouldn’t cooperate with her brain. Panic made her heart hammer in her chest and her mind go hazy as she continued to try moving.
A few moments passed in silence and then Eldridge leaned over and said, “It’ll itch over the next several days, but you will walk again.”
Although she didn’t know if the muscles around her eyes responded to her, she imagined glaring at him. A few more elves leaned over her, inspecting her for additional wounds. They placed smelly ointments on her cuts and bruises and made tsking sounds each time they discovered a new, untreated injury.
All Emma could think about was where Iris was. While she was being treated for relatively minor injuries, her sister could be being crushed by the weight of stone. Or slowly suffocating. Or lying broken at the bottom of one of the deep ravines caused by the golems’ pounding fists.
“Everything will be alright,” Eldridge said, placing his hand on her forehead again. A wisp of warm passed from him to her and she blinked at him in surprise.
“My sister?” she asked. To her surprise, words actually came out of her mouth this time.
“With our healer,” he said with a smile. “I know this all must be shock to you.”
That was the understatement of the year. Not very many elves chose to live in Dramadoon. Most stayed in the Encartia, home of the elves.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“We are here as envoys of the King,” he replied.
“Dramadoon doesn’t have a king,” she said.
He laughed. “No, she does not.”
Emma cocked her head towards him and asked again, “What is your purpose in coming here?”
He sighed. “There is a darkness to the west. Strange things have happened. The Princess is missing. Most believe her to be dead. The King does not.”
Emma shook her head. “Which king?”
“Colin of Szarmi,” Eldridge replied without missing a beat. “King of Szarmi.”
“Can you call yourself that if you don’t have the throne?”
“He will.”
“You seem rather confident in him,” she said. “I thought elves and Szarmians were mortal enemies.”
He gave her a half-smile. “They used to be. Some believe they still are.” He shrugged. “Regardless, we are here seeking aid from the Prince and Princess of Dramadoon.”
She blinked at him. First Chiara was talking about war and now this. She chewed on her bottom lip as she contemplated his words. She didn’t know how everything fit together, but she was beginning to wonder if there was something much bigger and darker happening in the world beyond their little sphere. She shook her head. She could consider that later. For now, all she wanted was to make sure her sister was well.
“I want to see Iris,” she said.
He pointed to a row of tents set up just beyond the rubble and pointed.
“She’s over there,” he said.
As she went, Eldridge called after her, “You cannot ignore the darkness forever. Eventually, it will consume everything, leaving us to wander alone in streets filled with broken dreams. We could use a fighter like you in the pending battle.”
Her back stiffened at his words. The farther they traveled from home, the more she realized she wished they’d never left.
Chapter Seventeen
Emma
The heat was oppressive as Emma crouched behind the bushes. It rained that morning and the scent of damp earth and wild animals clung to the air. She breathed in deeply, letting it remind her of home. Birds chirped as they hopped from branch to branch, singing to one another.
She inhaled as she spotted the white tail and brown fur of the deer. It bent its head to munch on a bush of berries. Exhaling, she released her arrow with a low ping.
Birds scattered at the sound. Other deer ran. But the one she’d been aiming at fell to the ground, an arrow protruding from its eye. She smiled as she stood. Sh
e set about tying the deer to a sturdy looking branch she found in the woods. She could already taste the venison stew she intended to make with the deer tonight.
“Emmaleigh.” Eldridge’s voice came from behind her.
She jumped and turned to face him.
“How do you do that?” she asked, her voice pitched.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Sneak up on me like that without making a sound. I mean, I know how to be quiet in the forest, but you… you make it seem easy.”
He shrugged. “When you have lived as long as I have and your sole means of survival was based on being stealthy, it changes how you interact with your environment.”
She gave him a puzzled look, but decided to move past his vague comments.
“What do you want?” she asked.
Better to get straight to the point. Over the past two days, he’d reiterated his interest in having her join their group of fighters. He considered her a valuable asset, after seeing how she handled the flaming blow.
“We leave at first light tomorrow, Emmaleigh. My brethren and I have discussed it at length. We would be honored if you would join us.”
“I can’t,” she said. “My place is with my sister.”
“The healer,” he mused, rubbing his jaw. “Yes, we’ve invited her to join us as well.”
Emma rolled her eyes at him. “Let me guess, she declined you outright and told you never to ask again.”
He chuckled at her, “It did go something like that.”
“Of course it did. She’s void-bent on finding someone.”
“She may have mentioned that in her long reasoning for why she couldn’t join us,” he said. “But I fail to see why you have to make the same choice.”
Emma shook her head. “Iris is all I have in the world. She and I have been through so much together. I can’t abandon her now. She wants to find him, and I want to keep her safe. I want her to be happy.”
He helped her lift the deer by taking the back half of the makeshift pole. “You are not your sister, Emma. There is a fighting spirit within you.”
“You don’t know Iris,” she said with a smile. She used to think her sister was weak. Somewhere along the way, that had changed. She now knew that Iris was stronger than anyone realized, especially herself.
“Is there nothing that could convince you to join us?”
She inhaled deeply at the question. She wanted the adventure and comradery she knew going with him would mean. Her heart told her to tell him that she wanted to join him more than anything, that she was willing to leave Iris to fight with them. But her head squashed the words before they had time to leap from her lips.
“Until we find Liam, I am with Iris,” she said, hedging her response.
“I see.”
They traveled in silence for several moments, hauling the deer between them.
“I will respect your wishes, Emmaleigh Valka, Starseeker.”
“You don’t have to call me that,” she said.
“Those who seek the light in the darkness are treasured among my people,” Eldridge said with a shrug. “Your ability is one that is always searching for the light, even in the darkest of hours.”
She rolled her eyes, even though he couldn’t see her face. “My sister has the better abilities,” she said. “She’s stronger than I can ever hope to be.”
“Your sister does have great strength,” he agreed, “but her ability to break other witch’s spells is a dark smear upon her name.”
Emma almost released her half of the pole at the anger in his tone. She didn’t understand how anyone with magic could promote the killing of innocents simply for having a certain ability. Wasn’t that the same as the Szarmians killing magicals in the first place? She ground her teeth. She was tired of her sister being treated like a second-class citizen for something she didn’t have any control over. It’s not like Iris chose to have this ability. It was gifted to her by the Light.
“I can sense your anger,” Eldridge said.
Emma dropped the deer and turned to face him. She jabbed him in the chest with her pointer finger. “You may think that Iris will turn to Darkness, and you know what, maybe she will. But I can promise you one thing, it won’t be because she was weak or misguided. It won’t even be because the Darkness seduced her. You want to know why my sister would ever, in a million years, decide to use her abilities for ill? It would be because people like you pushed her that way!”
She turned to leave, but Eldridge grasped her wrist.
“How can you say such things? We are not hurting her. We are not tempting her!”
“No, you’re not. But you are making her feel isolated. All Iris wants to do is heal people and do good in this world. That’s it. But every time she meets someone new and they find out she has the ability to break their spells or block their magical abilities, they treat her like last week’s garbage. So, forgive me for saying that what you’re doing is worse than anything she could ever do.” She stomped her foot. “And, if you want my opinion, treating her like this without taking the time to get to know her makes you a hypocrite.”
He blinked at her and remained silent for several moments.
“I am sorry if I have offended you,” he said at length.
“Don’t apologize to me,” she hissed. “Apologize to Iris!”
She struggled against his hold on her wrist. When she couldn’t break it, she shot him a glare she hoped he understood. His grip loosened and he stared down at his hands for several moments.
“I will think on your words,” he said stiltedly. He bent to pick up his end of the pole. He nodded towards her end. “Shall we?”
She scowled at him. She couldn’t force him to change his mind anymore than she could strip Iris of her powers. And she wouldn’t want to, either. It would mean more if he came to the realization of his own accord.
She picked up the stick and set as fast a pace as she could back to their small. She didn’t speak to him once the entire way there and, thankfully, he didn’t attempt to engage her in any further conversation either.
Emma rose before dawn. She checked on Micah, who was in his bedroll, first. His hair was tousled, and a bit of drool was running down his chin. She smiled at him and wondered what he would have done if he’d never been sent to spy on them. To hunt them.
Of course, he’d broken the rules by protecting them.
She considered if he even knew why he’d done it.
A memory floated to the forefront of her mind. It was winter again and she was standing in Grandmother Rel’s cottage as something pounded on the door. A giant, inky blob stormed into the room and attacked her. A wolf—Liam—saved her. He was wounded. Bleeding. She turned back to help him because he’d helped her.
Tears stung her eyes. He’d been protecting her ever since.
She leaned down and smoothed his hair back from his face. His eyelids fluttered. She wished she knew what he was dreaming about. He looked so peaceful.
She shook her head. There wasn’t time for her to consider her changing feelings for him. They still needed to find Liam and she needed to decide what she was going to do after they did.
She went to check on Chiara next, but her bedroll was missing. Emma ran outside, already knowing what was happening.
Chiara was tying the new pack the elves had given her to a fresh horse. Emma wasn’t sure where they’d procured the horses, but she was thankful they had. They brought enough for everyone to have a mount in the coming days, including Micah, Iris, Chiara, and herself.
She hurried over to Chiara.
“You’re leaving?” she asked, placing her hand on Chiara’s saddle.
“I have to,” she whispered. “I told you before, I want to join the fight. My powers may be of use.”
Emma nodded. She understood her friend’s desire to be useful.
“You could come with us,” Chiara whispered. “Micah could continue the journey with Iris. You don’t need—”
Emma shook
her head. “I can’t leave her,” she said. “Not yet. I promised her I would be with her until the end. And I intend to keep that promise.”
Chiara nodded, her lips pressed together.
After a silent pause, Emma leaned forward and they embraced one another tightly.
“Keep me posted on your whereabouts,” Emma said. “I want to know everything.”
“I promise,” Chiara said, voice hoard.
“Ahem.”
They both spun around to Eldridge standing behind them. Emma glared at him, and Chiara smiled.
“What do you want, Eldridge?” Emma asked.
He bowed to her and then held out a package wrapped in brown paper. It was tied up with a bow on top and everything.
“What is this?” Emma asked with a scowl as she accepted the package.
He shrugged. “Perhaps, in the future, you will decide to join our riders.”
She untied the string and pulled back the paper to find the miniature bow she’d used during the fight against the golems, a small jar of shimmering dust, and a dagger with an onyx blade. She glanced up at him, confused.
“My brethren and I decided that you should have the tools every one of us has,” he said. “With this bow, you can carry it with you wherever you go.” He snatched it from her hand and pulled back on the string. It grew to full-size, just as it had during the battle with the golems. He then pressed on a ruby set in the handle riser. The bow shimmered slightly before condensing back into its miniature form.
Emma nodded and held her hand out to take the bow back.
“Thank you,” she said. “But what are these other things for?” She motioned towards the rest of the items.
He picked up the jar of sparkling dust. “I told you before that you strike me as someone who always seeks the Light. This dust will help you light up the world. Use is sparingly, as there is a limited quantity left.”
“How is dust supposed to help me light up the world?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Blow a scoop of this dust into the air and follow it. Like the starbugs, it will glow. I hope it bring you comfort in the days to come. The Darkness is stirring and will be here soon.”
