by Eric Vall
“Thank you,” I told him sincerely. “I feel better already having spoken to you.”
“Of course,” he breathed. “Anything I can do to--”
But he suddenly tensed and looked toward the hallway. By the time he leaned back in his chair, the head of House Quyn reentered, and the purple-eyed elf seemed to sense the tension in the air.
Qiran studied Aeris and myself for a moment before he abruptly sat down to join us.
“Apologies for my absence,” he said thickly. “Where were we?”
The acute determination was gone from Aeris’ demeanor, and he picked up an elegant strand of silver from his robes to study it. “I hardly recall,” he said smoothly. “Your son interrupted us I believe.”
Qiran narrowed his eyes, but he turned toward me. “We were discussing your encounter with the head of House Syru,” he said. “You were explaining the peculiar powers he seemed to possess.”
I opened my mouth, but Aeris cut me off.
“I’m sure you have more important things to worry about at present,” the elite leader said, and his tone seemed to irritate Deya’s father. “Perhaps we can continue the discussion when all is settled with your House.”
“I am perfectly capable of continuing the discussion now,” Qiran informed him curtly, but just as Aeris sneered and made to argue this point, Dragir burst into the room.
He looked nearly sick with a sheen of sweat on his forehead, and he quickly came to his father’s side. “She’s gone,” he told him.
Both Aeris and Qiran shot to their feet.
“What did you say?” Aeris demanded, and he looked with a mixture of horror and disgust to the head of House Quyn.
Qiran didn’t seem to care about the elite leader anymore. “Get the guards,” he ordered his son, and the two swiftly headed for the hall.
“They’re already gathering their arms,” Dragir replied.
Cayla and I brushed past Aeris to follow them to the front of the house.
“Search in every direction ten times over,” the head of House Quyn growled as he threw the heavy doors of the entryway open. The light in the jungle was already falling to dusk, and the heavy fog was dense as it settled across the ground.
At least twenty elves rushed from the side of the house, and they strapped their glaives to their backs as they came. Dragir gave orders in Elvish to the guards, and the father gave his own to a group of elves who swiftly disappeared around the side of the house.
Aurora and Shoshanne must have heard the commotion, and they came from the garden to join Cayla and me.
“What’s going on?” Shoshanne asked nervously.
“Deya’s missing,” I told her, and the two women gaped.
“But … ” Aurora tried. “Are you sure? Maybe she’s just invisible again? ”
I shook my head. “Dragir’s been looking for her. She’s gone.”
I turned to Deya’s father as he finished another series of orders, and although the elf had a fierce cast to his deep purple eyes, I could see he trembled nervously.
“We’ll help you search for her,” I assured him, and his deep purple eyes flashed over my shoulder to the women behind me. They lingered on Aurora, but he waved his consent and said nothing before he disappeared into the house.
I shook my head and sent the three women to get the magazine crossbows from the sidecar. Then I scanned the dim clearing in front of the house and tried to find Dragir, but I could only make out the many guards who rushed back and forth and readied themselves to leave.
I hadn’t expected House Quyn to have as many elves on hand, and I wondered where they’d come from when the house had been quiet all afternoon. Now, the group had grown to thirty, and the noise of the elves echoed chaotically through the dimming jungle. Torches were lit and held aloft while they formed groups of five or eight, and I finally caught sight of Dragir at the center of one of the groups.
The women returned with the bows, and I strapped mine to my back as I made to join the Dragir’s search party.
He was delivering another series of orders in Elvish, and I furrowed my brow as I tried to discern what the plan was.
Before I could process his hand movements, a vicious snarl ripped through the air, and I jumped, spun around, and instinctively looked toward the fog that encroached from all sides.
My hand was already on the hilt of my dwarven sword, but none of the elves seemed to have noticed the ferocious sound.
“What was that?” Aurora breathed, and she clutched my arm.
“You heard it, too?” I clarified as I eyed Dragir.
Then the snarl echoed louder and was joined by several others, and Dragir finally looked up.
He brushed a couple elves aside and made his way toward the house, and a sudden surge of adrenaline pulsed through my veins as a chorus of howls rose up from the fog.
Chapter 3
Six elves were practically dragged through the trees at the edge of House Quyn by several roped and wolfish hounds. The energy of the large beasts was unnerving as they zig zagged and turned in antsy circles, and when the elves dropped the long ropes, they took to roving the clearing with wild eyes and gaping jaws. The fur of the wolfish dogs was dense and sleek, and most of them were gray or silver in color. Their eyes flashed in the torchlight in various shades of yellow and amber, and the intensity of their gaze made me suddenly feel like the prey amongst the pack.
The groups of elves sought to grab up a rope of any dog as it trotted past. They didn’t seem phased by the nervous energy and powerful builds of the beasts, and I watched as several guards even patted the wolves affectionately.
Then the same vicious snarl echoed through the clearing again, and I turned to see Dragir wrapping a hefty rope several times around his forearm.
At the other end of the rope, a massive wolf snarled and dug its claws into the damp soil as it strained against its tethers. Dragir braced himself while he was dragged forward, and he did his best to steer the creature toward his search party.
I flattened myself against the stonework of the house as it passed within a foot of me.
While the other wolfish dogs had been gray and sleek, this beast was sable all over with stark white fur tipped in jet black. His coat was so thick it made him resemble a wolf far more than any of the others, and his paws were bigger than my own fists. The large jaws gaped hungrily as his green eyes flashed and darted all over the place, and I could hear Dragir growl in Elvish to the beast as his arm began to turn blue from the tension of the rope.
I glanced to the three women beside me.
They’d pressed themselves against the stones as well to avoid being trampled when the wildish dog had passed by. Now, their eyes had grown wider than I’d ever seen them, and they stared at the dog tethered to Dragir.
“Is that a wolf?” Shoshanne asked breathlessly.
“I think it’s a dog, ” Cayla muttered. “Wolves would eat you for tying them up like that.”
Aurora leaned around us to get a better view, and I could see her emerald eyes flick from Dragir to the dog and back again.
The head of the beast, when it wasn’t stooped low and scouring the dirt, reached up to the hilt of the elf’s sword, and his body was easily as long as Bobbie. If I counted the thick plume of the tail, he was at least two feet longer than the motorcycle.
Aurora let out a long breath as she worked to steady her nerves. “I’ve never seen a dog that big,” she mumbled.
“I’ve never seen a wolf that big, either,” I added.
I looked back at the other dogs as they jumped and turned anxious circles around their search parties, and although there was a wildish resemblance, the others clearly were dogs. Their pointed ears and thick long tails quivered with energy and flicked cunningly as they scanned the sounds of the jungle around them, but they yipped and brushed against the elves like any dog would.
When I compared them with the more wolfish beast, it was clear he was twice their size. He didn’t even seem to register t
he crowded clearing while he knocked the knees of the elves aside and trampled their feet with Dragir dragging behind him. I would have chuckled at the tense irritation on the elf’s face as his arm faded to purple, but to see how easily the dog nearly yanked him clear off his feet, I felt less amused. The beast’s jaws gaped wildly as he prowled along, and I realized my entire head could fit in its mouth.
Dragir cursed once more before he called out above the ruckus of the guards and the panting dogs. At once, the search parties took to the trees.
The four of us fell in with Dragir’s group, and as soon as we were in the thick of the blue leaved plants, the dogs began yipping eagerly. Then the elves removed the ropes, and the dogs lurched into the fog while a few of them snapped and snarled at each other’s legs.
The wildish sable dog brought Dragir down hard on his knees when he struggled to release its neck from the rope, and he finally just unwound his arm and let the creature take off with the rope trailing behind. He let out a heavy sigh as he rubbed his arm back to life, and the other four elves beside him quickly darted after the beast.
It was madness trying to keep up with the pack in the jungle now that night had fallen completely. The dense fog all around us made the task even more difficult, and the softened terrain and felled logs tripped us up several times. Aurora managed to keep up with the elves well with her keen hearing and sight, but between the thick plants and the Elvish that echoed from every direction, I struggled to keep from getting lost in the blackened jungle.
The search parties dispersed in a wide berth through the trees, and we all headed north as the dogs yipped and snarled around us. Every so often, the silver tip of a tail would suddenly flick past my vision, or a spooky pair of golden eyes would flash through the fog.
The elves were swift as they sprinted through the dense leaves and leapt over logs to follow the pack. Dragir was nearly as hard to keep track of as the unruly sable dog, but he seemed to be calling out orders as he went, and our search party would turn or double back depending on where his voice came from.
After a half hour, the elves began to whistle sharply in a series of distinct notes, and the pack turned to head toward the southeast. We were making a large circle through the lands of House Quyn now, and two dogs barreled by on either side of me as our course shifted. They were followed shortly after by six elves running in a full on sprint, and I raised my brows as they leapt over a felled tree without pause.
Then the ground began to pound beneath my feet, and the massive white and black beast burst through the ferns beside me. I leaped to stumble out of its path and watched the hefty paws kick up sticks and moss as it went.
His green eyes flashed toward me for the briefest second, and my heart stopped in my chest.
The look on its face was purely predatory, and I was half sure he was about to fucking eat me, but he only curled his lip back over his fangs and snarled before he scaled the felled tree in one bound. Then Dragir quickly followed after him and hollered orders over his shoulder.
I fell into step once more with the elves in the sable beast’s search party, but as we began to head straight south, a long and low howl rose up through the fog ahead.
The elves around me stopped cold while the other dogs joined in the eerie song, and as the entire jungle began to echo, a sharp and ferocious bark split through the chorus.
Dragir took off once more, and the dogs that had been dispersed at our backs came barreling past with hungry snarls. They seemed to follow the throaty and distinct bark of the wildish dog.
The dogs broke their formations as everyone sprinted to catch up to the pack, but they didn’t care about their elven masters any longer. I saw the last of their silver tails disappear into the night, and the elves fell silent as they struggled to follow as swiftly as they could.
The women breathed heavily beside me, and my chest began to cramp, but we didn’t slow our pace for nearly twenty minutes. None of the elves stopped even for a moment, and we somehow managed to keep pace with the snarl of the dogs somewhere up ahead.
Then Dragir abruptly called out in Elvish, and the guards slowed to a stop. They started a series of sharp whistles different from the last, and as they slapped their glaives against the trunks of the trees, they whistled three clear notes before dropping the tone for another two. They repeated this pattern for a full minute before the dogs reappeared from the fog. Their yellow eyes flashed like crazed wolves as they trotted anxiously around the ferns, and the elves scrambled to wrangle the panting hounds.
Dragir climbed to the top of a log and stood silent amongst the chaos. His fists were clenched, and his shoulders heaved, and I waited a few feet behind him for the wildish beast to emerge from the trees.
Finally, a few elves called out frantically from the fog.
Dragir cursed under his breath and leapt from the log, and the four of us followed after him into the blackened jungle. I could hear the violent snarls of the wolfish dog now, and a few elves hollered as the teeth of the beast snapped sharply.
We pushed through a wall of ferns and found six elves attempting to recapture the giant dog. His hackles were raised, and his green eyes looked mad with hunger as he snapped at any hand that came near him.
Dragir slowly approached the frayed end of the rope that lay out in the dirt beneath the thick tail. I couldn’t believe he’d risk startling a creature that size from behind, and I slid my hand to the handle of the revolver on my hip.
The sable dog’s snarls gurgled deep in his massive chest, and the nervous elves who had him surrounded clutched their glaives in front of themselves.
Then the green eyes flicked over the muscular shoulder, and Dragir froze in his place. He spoke gently to the beast in Elvish, but the wolf swiftly flipped around and snapped at Dragir’s thigh.
The elf stumbled, but he managed to dodge the teeth that came at him, and just as the green eyes settled on myself and the three women beside me, I heard a soft rush of air, and the beast let out a yelp.
The dart had impaled its back leg, but it swayed stubbornly as it fought the haze of the tranquilizer. Finally, with a last snarl, the massive dog collapsed heavily into the dirt, and Dragir immediately laid out his orders.
It took all six elves to lift the unconscious body, and they strained to walk under the weight of the limp animal draped between them.
Then Dragir bolted off through the ferns, and I realized he was heading in the direction of House Quyn.
“Come on,” I growled to the women beside me, and we left the six elves to handle the wolfish beast while I squinted through the fog and worked to keep up with Dragir.
They must have tracked Deya at last, and alerting the head of the House would be next. Although, I couldn’t understand why we’d waste our time doubling back if we’d been so close to finding her. Unless it was too dangerous to go further with the crazed beast acting the way he was. Just the ominous sight of its hackles and fangs had made my knees go weak, and I didn’t want to imagine what his next level looked like.
The torches of the other elves converged, and we all arrived within sight of House Quyn at the same time. The silver dogs didn’t fight their masters like the wolf had. They fell in beside the elves with their jaws gaping wide, and their tails swished high above their backs.
“Get to Bobbie and be ready to go,” I told the women. “We can travel faster than the elves. I’ll figure out where the scent left off, and we’ll head out.”
The three women nodded and broke off to head for the willowish trees, and I continued my sprint directly behind Dragir as he ran into the house.
The head of House Quyn was in the same sitting room, and every candelabra was lit so the layer of fog that settled above glowed a warm orange. He was hunched and kneading his hands anxiously before the fire when Dragir and I entered, and he shot up the moment his son finally came to a stop.
Dragir didn’t even pause to catch his breath. “The trail led directly for House Kylen,” he informed the leader.
/> I watched Qiran’s face go ashen, and he stumbled as his knees gave out. The elf collapsed into his chair with a look stricken with fear, and his jaw moved as if he could hardly form his words.
“House Kylen … ” was all he said.
“They will pay greatly for this,” Dragir assured him. “We will be ready to attack before sunrise. I’ll send the three troops out and come to the house from all but one side, and--”
“No,” the father muttered as he looked up at his son, and his eyes were wide with worry and terror.
“They won’t expect the full army,” Dragir continued. “If we hit hard and fast, they’ll have no chance to--”
“No,” the father said again, and Dragir finally fell silent. He breathed heavily as he braced himself on the back of a chair, and he waited for his father to continue.
Nothing was said for a long moment as the father stared into the fire.
I started to wonder which of us was more likely to smack the aged elf into a sense of urgency. My adrenaline pumped stubbornly through my veins as I waited for the order to head out, and I could only imagine how Dragir felt.
After what felt like ages, the leader sighed heavily, and he spoke to the flames.
“We will not attack,” Qiran said.
“Father, you cannot believe they--”
“You will fail,” he said simply, and Dragir’s shoulders dropped slightly. “You will fail against the army of House Kylen, and then who will lead this House?”
“I would not fail,” Dragir growled. “You underestimate our men, father. You must see sense. With sixty elves moving out before first light--”
Now, Qiran stood and turned a fierce glower toward his son as he towered over him. “I would not risk the lives of sixty elves and my only heir!” he snapped.
“You still have two heirs,” his son countered through gritted teeth.
“We are not equipped for this level of attack, and the attempt would only bring upon the wrath of Kylen,” Qiran bellowed. “What do you think they will do when we retaliate and fail? Do you think they’ll let her live?”
