“Yes, I knew they would be alert, but I told them to be watchful anyway.”
As the two were talking, some of the men on the other side of the ravine began pointing southward. Daegon raised his hand in acknowledgment and motioned them to stay low.
Within minutes, an elf on horseback came into view. He was off the trail, hugging the slope closest to the commander and Captain Voll. Just before he came into range of fire of the archers, he stopped. Sensing something was not quite right, he dismounted and tied the horse to a tree. He withdrew his bow and knocked an arrow as he ran into the brushy foliage.
Daegon pointed toward the elf and then pointed to his eyes to alert his men to simply watch and wait. The elf quickly concealed himself from their view. Daegon wanted to capture this elf alive, even though doing so might prove to be an arduous task as elven scouts were the most cunning and watchful of their race.
The elf then made a rare mistake by popping out of a clump of bushes and onto the open hillside and froze. Then without warning, the scout stowed his bow over his head, turned, and ran in the direction of his horse. The soldiers across the ravine began to raise their bows, but Daegon raised his hand to halt their eagerness. The elf disappeared again through the trees and bushes and reached the spot where he left his horse only to find five soldiers standing there with their arrows nocked and pointed at him.
Daegon signaled to the others to converge upon the scout and surround him. The elf turned around to run deeper into the woods, but only found more soldiers. Turning around again, he withdrew a knife and took defensive stance. He said nothing, signaling that they were going to have to take him by force. A few of the human soldiers began to close in on the elf. The elf turned, jabbed, and swung his knife in the air. He was trapped, nowhere to go, like a small animal cornered by a pack of wolves. Out of the sky came the scout’s Hook-feather hawk, which wrapped its talons onto one soldier’s helm, and began pecking at his forehead and eyes. The soldier screamed, dropped his bow, and tried to grab the bird.
A few soldiers took their aim away from the scout and instead gave their attention to the hawk. Seeing this, the scout charged for one of the distracted humans, and tackled the closest soldier at the same moment an arrow was loosed toward the hawk. The soldier watched the arrow disappear in the sky, missing the hawk as the elf crushed into his chest, knocking him to his back. The elf landed on his chest and as fast as a cat pouncing for its final kill. The soldier tried to sit up, but the elf jabbed his knife through the soldier’s throat. Blood from his jugular sprayed onto the scout’s chest and face, as one of the soldiers cracked his skull with the hilt of his sword.
“Don’t kill him!” Daegon yelled as the soldiers in a blood craze were pounding the elf within the precious strands of his life.
“I command you to cease!” he shouted.
The soldiers continued with the beating by kicking him incessantly as he lay on the soft ground, now unconscious.
“I said to stop!” Daegon yelled again as he grabbed one of the soldiers by the neck of the leather armor and threw him to the ground. The rest of the soldiers, seeing their leader attack one of their own stopped and stared at him with fear and anger in their eyes.
“I want him alive!” he yelled again, his face flush with anger. He felt his forehead and ears on fire. “Pick him up and drag him to that tree.”
The soldiers did as commanded, dragging the limp elven frame through the rocks and bushes some fifty feet, and dropped him next to the tree closest to the road.
“Rope,” Daegon commanded, pointing to a soldier standing by a wagon that was nestled in the bushes. The soldier rushed to the wagon, rustled through a few items under a tarp, grabbed a rope, and ran back to the commander. The ends of the rope hung loosely as he handed it to Daegon who snatched it from his hands and threw it to one of his soldiers standing nearby.
“Hang him up by his feet,” Daegon barked.
The soldier threw the rope over a branch from the tree. They dragged the elf to him, tied up his hands and feet, and hoisted him up so that he was upside down until his head was at even height with theirs. Daegon walked over to the elf and slapped his face. The unconscious form swayed to one side from the slap. Daegon, not satisfied, continued to slap him until he regained consciousness.
“Good morning friend,” Daegon growled with a devious smile.
The elf blinked rapidly while his mind tried to grasp his dilemma. When he realized his predicament, he started to wiggle, squirm and twist his way out of the ropes. Daegon grabbed the elf’s shoulders stopping him.
“You will die today, you must accept this,” Daegon said, smiling at the elf’s terrified brown eyes. “Knife,” he said holding out his open hand.
The soldier closest to him handed him his knife. He took it with one hand, while stroking the elf’s fine hair with his other as it hung down off his head.
“Don’t worry, believe it or not, this won’t hurt . . . much. I am going to give you the courtesy your kind does not give us before death. I will let you die peacefully.
Daegon raised the knife before the elf’s eyes and touched the tip to his forehead.
“Hold him still!”
Two soldiers came around and untied the elf’s hands and then grabbed his arms and stretched them outward. Without further hesitation, Daegon took the knife and sliced his neck with a small cut below and to the left of the elf’s chin. The elf let out a short yelp, but made no other sound. Blood drained freely passing his ear and to the ground. The elf’s eyes went wide with fear and realization that he was now in the final moments of his life. He did not move or squirm, but watched blinking as the blood flowed closely past his left eye and into his hair, matting it with the sticky warmth.
The soldiers watched the elf slowly die. All were amazed at his calm peacefulness. Some of the soldiers smiled, while others, some of the younger ones, watched in horror as the blood began to drip out of the lifeless body forming a muddy pool of blood below him.
“Take your positions; we have one more ambush to do,” Daegon said, calm and firm, and he smiled with a satisfied grin when the last drop of blood hit the ground.
* * *
A few miles away Naemyn rode atop his horse, safely between the elven soldiers. The sky was beginning to clear and he was looking up at a patch of blue sky when he saw one of his scouts’ Hook feather-hawks flying in fast. He felt a sense of trouble with his Kronn, but he did not need his Kronn to sense this. The hawk’s erratic flight told the whole story. He raised his hand just above his right ear, made a fist and twisted violently. He smiled as he watched the feathers burst outward and slowly fall to the ground.
* * *
Rain began to drizzle into the valley where Daegon and his men prepared for the caravan to come through. The men were eager with anticipation. Daegon was confident in his men, many of these men he not only fought beside, but against. In battles against each other, they often showed great strength and ferocity, which made him proud that they had now bonded together as a single fighting force against one common enemy.
The time had come, and now Daegon would have his revenge. He smiled as the rain drenched his head then trickled down his neck. A shiver went down his spine, not sure if it was from the cold rain or just the pre-combat excitement. Daegon stood up and walked down the spur and into the draw where the road met the spur. He stood in sight of most of his men and put his forefinger to his lips to motion silence. He unsheathed his sword, raised it above his head, and circled it wildly. The men saw this, did the same, and let out quiet guttural grunts, which encouraged the others to follow in rhythm. He encouraged this near silent motivation for a few seconds before he lowered his sword and motioned with his other hand to stop with a swift palm down sideways motion under his chin.
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br /> Satisfied and anticipating a successful ambush, he ran up the hill back to his position and waited, knowing retribution was not far away. His men were ready. They were now one, awakened, and motivated for battle. This would be the first battle of many bloody, brutal, and ugly battles to come.
Chapter 22
Naemyn’s head hurt. It hurt so bad he had to stop his horse to rub his head. Trouble was near. After speaking with the Guardian, he knew of all the things he had learned about his Kronn, he could always trust it to tell him when tragic events were about to unfold. Not that this was something he had just learned, but rather confirmed his lifelong suspicions, and brought out into his conscious what he had known all of his life.
His temples felt as if sharp needles were drilling into his skull just above his eyebrows. As though his skull was fracturing and would crumble from the pressure. Yes, his Kronn was screaming at him to tell him something iniquitous was about to happen. He had to ignore it, because not only did he suspect that something so utterly heinous was about to happen, he wished for it, yet that did not stop his Kronn from hurting his head.
“What is wrong?” Paerglae asked as he rode up to Naemyn.
“Nothing. We must press on. I want you to take all of the scouts away from the flanks and push forward. Ride hard now, speed is of the essence, and we need to quicken our pace.”
Paerglae looked confused, but did not question his orders and turned his horse away and sped off to gather all of the scouts. Naemyn knew it would only be a matter of time, and with any luck, not too much time. After seeing the erratically flying hawk, he suspected that his forward scout had run into trouble. Fighting would soon begin, and once it did, he knew his head would stop hurting. He did not know how this would turn out, but he did know that if everyone with him today died, his plan would begin to unfold.
It did not take long before he saw a dozen hawks flying to the air in panic, a sign that their masters had been killed.
“Trouble ahead!” Naemyn yelled. “The forward scouts have been ambushed! Archers flank the swordsman, stay alert when we engage the humans, they will be in the woods just off the road!”
His elven warriors charged ahead, leaving him with two scouts flanking him for protection. Their bravery touched him, yet he felt no guilt in their ignorant obedience. He hoped for their deaths, but he did feel a slight sense of pity that they would have to die in order for him to conceal his deceit.
“Stay close to me,” Naemyn said as he charged his steed down the road.
Naemyn rode for less than a mile when he heard the sounds of battle. He could tell by their death screams that they were not only dying, but they were dying a brutal death at the hands of the barbaric and cruel humans. A few minutes later, he came around the turn of the mountainside that obscured his vision of what lie ahead due the rocky hillside.
Immediately he realized the perfection of the ambush. The area was heavily vegetated around tightly clumped trees that grew out of the rocky hillside on both sides of the road. There was no way to route the attackers out of their advantage. Dead horses and elves scattered the road as more arrows flew down at the elven swordsman trying vainly to climb up to their attackers. Some elven archers hid amongst rocks on one side of the road, but had no cover from the human archers on the opposite side of the road. He watched as his small squad died in humiliating fashion.
Only four elves lived long enough to find successful cover in between the crevice of two or three boulders away from the human archers. He knew they were doomed as the humans began to inch their way out of their cover, advancing on the elves to finish them off. Naemyn dismounted his horse and commanded his two elves to stand in front of him and to shoot their arrows randomly into the hillside. As they did so, he called upon his Kronn to cover the elves trapped within the cove of the boulders.
The boulders turned black as coal and then shimmered slightly and sparkled until they appeared to fade into a black hole, covering the elves in complete darkness.
Naemyn’s elven archers had no luck in hitting their targets, but once he had his elves covered, he then directed his Kronn to the elven arrows. Their arrows turned into vipers that did not go randomly into the hillside, but directly to human targets. The men screamed as these black vipers landed upon the humans and wrapped themselves around their necks, biting them incessantly upon their faces and necks.
Naemyn smiled as he watched the humans writhe in pain, the poison flowing through their veins and to their heart. The venom was quick, but painful. Feeling confident in his Kronn, he then covered himself in the same fashion as he did his elves. He walked over to the dark boulders that hid his warriors and told them to come to the center of the road. Arrows stormed upon him, but vanished as they reached the shadowy substance protecting him and his elves.
He sat down and began to cast his final piece of work. He did not want to devastate these humans, but he began to enjoy his success against them. He could not resist doing one more action to hurt these pesky, unintelligent barbarians to take away the confidence that they had gained from attacking his warriors in such a cowardly fashion.
Black clouds began to appear directly above Naemyn, forming a dark blue funnel spinning slowly at first and then faster and tighter until the tip of the cyclone touched inches above Naemyn’s head. When it did so, hundreds of black lightning bolts shot out of the funnel, hitting the humans indiscriminately, killing them on contact.
Then without warning, the cloud disappeared, and began to weaken and tire. It took the humans a few seconds to gather and recollect their senses and realize that the sorcerer attacking them was now completely defenseless. They stood up and fired arrows at the helpless elves protecting Naemyn. They each took dozens of arrows in their bodies and fell listlessly to the road. Naemyn was about to lose consciousness when he heard a woman’s voice screech into the air.
“Stop! All of you! Cease fire!” Traelyn shouted from the top of the mountain, holding the empty Quarterstar Talisman above her head with both hands. Traegon stood behind her holding her steady so that she did not tumble down the hillside.
Naemyn began to laugh as he lay on his back looking upwards, watching his black clouds dissipate out of the rainless overcast sky. All movement ceased at the sound of the Great Mother’s voice.
Chapter 23
“Great Mother!” Daegon shouted from his vantage point on the top of the hill just a few yards away from her to his left. “What are you doing?”
“We are in need of these elves,” she said.
“We need nothing from these elves!” he shouted to her, leaping from boulder to boulder to reach her before she could do any more harm.
“Traegon, take me to that elf down there. I think I know him.”
“You will do no such thing!” Daegon shouted as he stood in front of her straddling two boulders.
“You will not stop me son. If you do, I will command all of your men to abandon you and go home.”
“You would do no such thing, and no one would listen to you.”
“Do you want to test me? You will lose, I promise you. I have allowed you so much power in my name, and you have earned the respect of your men, in my name, but remember, it is in my name that you hold your strength.”
Daegon knew his men trusted him and followed his every order, so much so that he believed that if he defied her right now, they would still follow him. However, he did not want to test it just now, he had too much to lose, to end up turning back now.
“I will trust your judgment Great Mother, as always, but you are on a short leash, you are weak and need to return home. As for you Traegon, I will deal with you later!”
“Daegon!” Traelyn shouted. “You are pushing me son! There will be no such reprimand with Traegon.
He has only done all that I have asked of him. Now help me down from this nasty death trap.”
Daegon commanded three humans out of their positions to help Traelyn down the hillside. When they reached Naemyn, the elf had just finished standing up to meet his soon-to-be captors. Traelyn pushed Traegon to the side once she reached the road. Daegon immediately bolted toward her and jumped in between her and Naemyn.
“This is a dangerous elf Great Mother. Please do not go near him, or even speak to him,” he pleaded.
“You have no idea what is going on here. I know him. I know he is dangerous. He is the person responsible for banishing me from my home and my lover.”
Naemyn smiled as he looked Daegon directly in his eyes.
Daegon commanded two of his men to push Naemyn to his knees and tie his hands.
“She is right. We knew each other very well. However, Traelyn, please know that sending you away was not my decision,” he said as they bound his hands behind his back.
“You lie!” Traelyn fumed. “You had everything to do with it.”
Traelyn looked at Daegon and saw the confusion and rage in his eyes, then put her hand upon his shoulder and smiled the smile she gave to all of her children to calm them down. She then turned back to Naemyn and took a deep breath.
“Thanks to Daegon’s powerful force here today I have you as a prisoner, and I hold your elusive Quarterstar Talisman in my possession. Now I have a secret for you. This talisman was given to me by King Keiyann Krowe.”
Traelynn’s hands shook. She would soon find out the truth of her exile from Jaerick, after all of these years, all she wanted to learn was why he had sent her away to die amongst the barbarian human tribes. She remembered Naemyn telling her that she needed to be with her own people, but these humans were not her own kind, they weren’t as civilized as the people she lived with at the Halls of Dar Drannon. This fact alone made her hate the elves more than anything they could have done to her.
Quarterstars Awakening Page 18
