Then she smirked at me. “And Artemis, my dear Jania went on and on how you were the greatest warrior of Olympus and your aim rivaled that of the Elves. We will not send the most accomplished warriors to Sund.”
She said flatly, “I will choose who will fight for Olympus' right to speak with the Light Elves as equals.”
She pointed at Intark without looking away from me. “The Ragnarok, Intark, will represent those who had enslaved the Ljósálfar... unarmed. Then she smiled as she studied my eyes as she pointed beside me. “Aphrodite of Olympus, Goddess of Love, shall have to see if she is also a goddess of war as she walks the night for Olympus.”
There were gasps from most of our party except from me. I was so close to tilting my head back to laugh. She had just chosen two deadly warriors. With or without weapons, Intark was a frightening man to watch on the battlefield, and Dite was the assassin of Olympus, a ruthless and deadly beauty.
But then the color drained from my face when the Queen turned away from me and stepped to the Three Embers and said softly, “Samantha of the Asgard. My daughter professes you to be the gentlest of all Asgard and will do no violence. We shall put that to the test when you are forced to defend yourself against those who will not hesitate to kill you. Are your convictions strong enough that you would die for them?”
Jania launched herself forward, the guards tried to bring their pikes down, but Jani spun and twirled, winding up getting their pikes crossed with the blades at each other's throats as she railed at her mother, “No! You can have all of your sick little mind games, but you will not use Samantha as a pawn, just because you do not approve of me with her!”
She froze when Sammie stepped up behind her and said as she laid a hand gently on her shoulder, “It is ok, Jani. I will stand for Asgard. I will stand for us.”
Our Elvish friend exhaled long and hard, then moved back a step, pushing the crossed pikes down, causing the blades to strike the forest floor. Then she spat out, “Your personal guards are soft and slow, they need to be retrained.”
The four looked sheepish, not meeting their Queen's eyes. Then the All Mother took her eyes slowly from her daughter's and said, “You know we would not allow them serious injury as they walk the night, you know how the Sund works, daughter. They will all have Nightwalkers.”
Jania scoffed, “But if they fail against the Dökkálfar, you will deny the talks.” The Queen's silence was her answer.
Then after an awkward silence, Nerthus asked, “Who will be the Nightwalkers for those who will Sund, to be recognized by the Elves of Alfheimr as equals? I will stand Nightwalker Watcher for the Andskoti.”
The guards and the Elves within earshot at the wall all gasped. The Queen was going to walk the night?
Before anyone could say anything, Jania blurted, “I stand as Nightwalker for Samantha of the Asgard.”
Kara started to step forward but I gave her a warning look as I said, “I will stand as Nightwalker for Aphrodite of Olympus.”
The All Mother said with what looked like a satisfied smile, “Let it be so.”
Breem whispered, “You cannot my Queen.”
She regarded him then asked, “Who am I?”
He inclined his head, averting his eyes as he bit out, “She Who Lived.”
The woman narrowed her eyes at him as she nodded. “She Who Lived. I am no soft-palmed highborn.” She shrugged off her robes, which drifted to the ground, leaving her standing there, in the light armor that Jania favored while sparring, which covered only the vital areas of her body as she accepted a pike from one of her guards.
We all just stared at her in shock.
There before us stood the Queen of the Elves, who I thought had not proved herself as well as her daughter. Every square inch of exposed flesh on the woman was covered in those raised markings, vines seemingly wrapped around her entire body, with so many curls and leaves and flowers it was almost impossible to determine how many there were. And they wrapped around huge scars and gashes on her arms, belly, and legs.
This was the Ljósálfar leader, this was the Queen of the Elves, this was a warrior... and she was spectacular. We all took a knee with her people and I was looking at her with new eyes now, with the respect I had for Odin, Geiravor, Hera, and Zeus as great leaders.
Chapter 8 – Sund
When we stood again as an Elf handed me my weapons back and I shouldered them, Queen Nerthus said, “I trust the intelligence I have received from our... sources on your abilities, Artemis, but I will send no-one out to walk the night if I am not versed in their ability as Nightwalker Watcher to defend themselves and their charge. You do not realize what you face in the Dökkálfar. I can assign another.” She looked over at Kara. “I had expected the girl's mother to take the role for her pacifist daughter, it was unexpected that Jania took the post. I trust in her abilities, as they are second only to mine.”
I sighed and turned away from the group as I drew Wrath and an arrow and aimed at a tree a hundred yards down the path and let loose an arrow. I had to blink at how easy it was to draw the bow, it felt like a child's bow to me now. And the force projections of the microscopic point singularity used to fling the arrows had blipped in my vision at three times my normal force draw on the photonic string.
Everyone gasped with me as the hypersonic arrow struck the tree at speeds unheard of before I possessed Asgard strength. With a loud crack, the trunk of the tree, though smaller than other giants around it, at around five meters thick, exploded into splinters from the shockwave alone. At least four or five other trees behind it suffered a similar fate, before the arrow embedded feather deep into a particularly large Tanalus Tree.
I looked around, almost every Elf present was shielding their Queen. Jani was just gaping at the destruction as two of the trees creaked and groaned as they fell over the path, shaking the ground after they seemed to fall forever, being taller than the trees on any other planet I have been to.
Breem was on the ground, covering his head as Dite squeaked beside me.
I turned to our group, and Kara had an eyebrow cocked, a strange grin on her face as I shrugged, feeling sheepish as I said, “Well that just happened.” Zeus' Balls! Was this what the Verr had done to me? I'd have to re-learn restraint on my bow, after witnessing what I was capable of now.
Kara just gave me a bemused look as the All Mother looked up from where she had shielded her eyes and said with a touch of humor, “On second thought, you would be acceptable as Nightwalker.”
I pointed out as I scratched the back of my neck after I re-shouldered my bow, still feeling sheepish as we heard another crash somewhere behind the other fallen trees, “It... umm... doesn't normally do that.”
The queen cocked her head and then Jania broke out into a giggle fit, causing the Queen to smirk. Then she inclined her head. Then she narrowed her eyes and asked, “Why is it that Alfheimr is where you must move your great city to? Can you not just move to where these other worlds are if you truly have the capability to flee out into the stars?”
I explained as she indicated we should follow her to the gates, “It would take more time to charge the capacitors for any other planet, and we do not even know if Kara's deception has even given us the time we need to space fold to Alfheim. As we have said, this may all be for naught, but we have to have hope. We will lose the only home we have ever known if not.”
She nodded, deep in thought as we walked up to the gates. I could hear Jania speaking low behind us, trying to convince Samantha not to walk the night. That she didn't understand. Sam assured her, “I will not commit violence, but if this is what your All Mother needs in order to save the Citadel of our friends, then I will not back down.”
Jani said with compassion apparent in her tone, “Then I will protect you from the dark walkers.”
Nerthus hesitated as a group of people who were apparently waiting at the gates took a knee. Some looked so very young, barely older than children.
; The hesitant look on her face turned to one of pure pride and love as she motioned a hand up, causing them all to rise as she said, “Younglings, tonight was to be your Sund, your rite of passage into adulthood. I am so proud of each and every one of you, and it hurts my heart to say that tonight there will be no Sund for you, as our kleshnie visitors must prove they are worthy to beg the Ljósálfar for help and walk among us as equals.”
The young ones started to protest, but they silenced instantly when she held up a halting hand. “Rest assured, you will return tomorrow to walk the night. I look forward to the Naming.”
They all bowed and said, “All love to All Mother. Queen Nerthus of Alfheimr.” Then with efficiency, the warriors with them ushered the young ones away.
Then she stood, her nose inches away from the gates and... we all just stood there. Inatra whispered to Jania, “What are we doing?”
Jani said as she started to juggle three arrows from her quiver, “We wait for the last rays of the sun to extinguish, then the gates will only be opened once to let those who would walk the night out to Sund and their watchers. Once the gates close behind us, they will not open until the first rays of the sun brighten the land again. The rest of you can watch from the walls, as you will not be allowed to interfere in the trials.”
Inatra and Kara growled as one at that.
Breem interjected, “She Who Lived will lead the Sund as the highest ranking of the Named walking the night.”
Dite perked up, sensing an opening to get clarification, and prompted the Queen, “You were named She Who Lived?”
The Queen of the Elves looked darkly over her shoulder at that, then at the master Story Teller and inclined her head at him, he inclined his head then turned to address us all as she turned back to the gates.
He took on that bearing of a competent bard again, as he began to tell the story of their Queen's Naming. The other gathered Elves leaning in with bright eyes to hear a story I'm sure they have all heard a thousand times. “Thirty-nine harvest seasons ago, under the twin harvest moons, young Nerthuslayinlali stepped out of the gates to walk the night with three other younglings and their Watchers to Sund.”
He wiped both arms through the air like he was sweeping back time to that night. “It was like all other harvest moons, as their group joined the warriors, the Heroes of the Night, who protected the farms and livestock from the Dökkálfar every night. Alas, that group which stood thirty strong did not anticipate their plight that night.”
He made spreading motions with his hands as he thrust his arms forward. “It was a cursed night like no other, instead of the small groups of Dark Elves who attacked each night, it seems the dastardly underground dwellers had been massing for a sneak attack which they had set into motion that very night.”
The Elves, except Jania and Nerthus, leaned in closer as he spoke barely above a whisper, “As the patrol began, they sensed something had changed. It was too quiet, as the Dökkálfar would attack the moment the defenders stepped onto the farms, it is what the demons always did. But not that night.”
The Heroes of the Night were on guard, knowing something was wrong as well, and they told the younglings...” He hesitated and looked around at the eager faces.
They all murmured, the spell of the story still holding them in thrall, “Return to the gates, something is amiss. We shall protect your egress.”
Breem lurched forward, leaping onto a bench, reaching out to the two moons in the sky, “And they struck! With savagery never before seen. The safe return of the younglings on Sund was not to be as seven score Dökkálfar charged out of the forest from all directions, screaming in their infernal tongue.”
He lowered his eyes looking at his palms and shook his head in sorrow as he shared, “They were overrun in seconds, outnumbered seven to one. As the battle raged while the twin moons traveled the sky, the Heroes of the Night and the Nightwalker Watchers fell one by one, trying to protect the younglings from a horrific fate.”
Then he exhaled and looked up, eyes gleaming with unshed tears, “When the last protector fell, the younglings faced twenty of the soulless underground dwellers. And the Dark Elves showed no mercy as they pressed the attack.”
Nerthus added, still staring at the gates, not looking back, her voice raw and haunted, “One by one they fell, the children I grew up with, whom I had known my entire life. The children who were my friends. The children who had been excited to walk the night with me in Sund to cross over to adulthood. They fought well, just as fiercely as the Heroes of the Night, brave to the very end.”
There was a moment of silence as Breem hopped off the bench to sit on it, his elbows on his knees as his hands stretched out plaintively, eyes heavy with sorrow. “Young Nerthuslayinlali watched those sworn as their protectors die, then those she had laughed with, had played with as children, all struck down on the eve they were to become adults.”
Kalimish stumbled back, tripping on his own feet to land on his butt when Breem launched himself to his feet shaking a fist in front of him, his voice a roar, “It ignited a fire inside of her that rivaled the very sun as her blade was knocked away by a knife of volcanic glass, and the enemies piled upon her, their blades cutting flesh, their clubs pummeling.”
He smiled fiercely. “Her hand grasped for something, for anything, and it found the shaft of the pike of one of the fallen Heroes of the Night. And this young Ljósálfar screamed out in defiance as that fire of rage inside of her blazed while she threw the attackers from her and stood...”
The Elves, to the one, including those lined up on the great wall all roared out, “You shall not take this night from us!”
Then it was silent for a moment as Breem exhaled, as if he was exhausted, and let himself fall back onto the bench. He looked at his open palms as if they were foreign to him. “One youngling, on the cusp of womanhood, standing against twenty Dökkálfar. Beaten, bloodied, her skin marked forever by the razor-sharp blades, she fought and she raged though she knew that to be her final stand.”
He looked to us outsiders, us kleshnie, and it sounded almost like a plea. “The Gate Guardians went out in search of those of the Sund when they didn't return to the gates at first light. I was a young apprentice Story Teller then, and was sent along to document, and to remember, if the worst had come to pass.”
He reached out a hand and cupped it toward his Queen's back. “We arrived at a scene of carnage so horrific it defies proper description. The nightmares haunt many of us still today. We found the younglings, their watchers and the Heroes of the Night gutted on the field of battle, dead black elves strewn around them.”
A tear did roll down his cheek as he dropped his hand, still looking at his Queen in sorrow. “But there, in the middle of a sea of Dark Elf bodies, blinded by the blood in her eyes, beyond exhaustion and staggering as she tried to stay on her feet, stood young Nerthuslayinlali. She swung a bloodied and splintered pike at the ghosts of the enemies she had dispatched.”
He swallowed and hung his head, whispering again, “She was delirious, rasping out challenges to her imagined enemies with a voice raw from screaming. The commander of the watch reached her, and pulled the pike from her hands and told her that her fight was over as she collapsed into his arms.”
He looked at each of us in turn. “We had all thought she had succumbed to her wounds, she should have died from any one of the dozens upon dozens inflicted upon her.”
His eyes still on his queen, studying her as she stood motionless, staring at the gate, he said, “But she gasped out one breath after another as she was rushed back to the gates, to the healers, to the All Mother, Queen Alissia of Alfheimr who had been summoned to the main gates when the younglings had not returned.”
All of the Elves stood taller in pride as he finished the story which held us under its spell. “When the healers said that they did not believe young Nerthuslayinlali would live, Queen Alissia had snapped out to them, 'She will. She walked the night, she sur
vived when all others were lost. Mark my words...' she had pointed at me, Breem, and said, 'Nerthus, She Who Lived, will stand as one of the greatest heroes of Alfheimr.' And her words, still today, are proven.”
We all turned to look at this incredible woman. The scars from that night marked her skin forever, and her tribal markings bore witness to each and every one of them as she stood tall, not looking back as the last ray of sun extinguished itself, bathing Alfheim in the silver light of the moons.
The gates creaked, swinging open slowly as she said without turning back as she strode forward to walk the night in Sund with us without hesitation, “With me.”
Chapter 9 – Ambush
We stepped out of the gate and turned around when they creaked then boomed shut behind us. Our friends were on the other side, and we were with the Elves, safe. I looked around as the All Mother finally turned to look at our group.
We numbered six and she spoke with a seriousness I had not heard from her yet. “They are not as strong or well armed, but they are vicious and will stop at nothing to kill. That is all they do, attack mindlessly. Do not underestimate them.” Then she furrowed her brow, and asked, “Intark?” That was the first time she used his name.
He stepped in front of her, casting her in shadow as he blocked the moonlight from striking her as he nodded. “Yes.”
She nodded back. “Stay behind me, I will make sure they do not attack you. They will be drawn to me as they are any ranking warriors.”
He chuckled. “You do not need to protect me. As I understand, this Sund... it is meant as a rite of passage for the young? I will not cower when a youngling would not. I can fight my own battles, All Mother.” He inclined his head.
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