Quarterstars Awakening

by David L. McDaniel

  Jaerick did not even say goodbye to her or escort her himself. Naemyn was the one who gave her the news as she waited in her chambers for Jaerick to return while the king was extinguishing a revolt of the elven people when they found out that she was pregnant with Jaerick’s child.

  “You defile this bed with your human stink, and you have no place here in this kingdom, tainting the bloodline with this vile growth in your body. It will grow up to be a pariah that will weaken the bloodline and eventually destroy the elven race.”

  Traelyn said nothing, but stared at Naemyn as he looked down at her in disgust.

  “However,” he began again, “I have been instructed to give you these seeds. Grow them and eat the pistil from the blooms once a year and you will have everlasting life as long as you do.”

  “Why would you send me away, just so that I can live forever?”

  “We need you alive. One day you will return to the elves, but you will bring with you destruction and devastation, and then you will die, and the gods will return to restore the elven kingdom to its proper prominence in the Known Lands.”

  “That makes no sense Naemyn. You send me away only to return. You would be best served to kill me now, and kill this child as well if you so believe it will destroy your race. You have been so crazed over these prophecies that you can’t even think on your own.”

  “No, you don’t understand, and I don’t expect you to. I am being groomed to be the prophet that brings in the end times of this world, as we know it, and bring forth a new age of elven prominence. I alone hold the power to make all these events come to pass. You will return many years from now just as I will become the most powerful being in this realm. You and I will work together to bring about the destruction of this realm which will eventually bring in this prosperous new age.”

  “You are crazed! I am not here to help you bring in a new age; I am here because your king brought me here against my will. The elves killed my father, and I have been held hostage here, and now you want to discard me like old clothing.”

  “Must we go over this again? We did not kill your father. Your father is alive. He is merely in waiting. He is in another realm waiting for his return to this land. He left with the Sword of Valkilye, which means, even though I believe giving him the sword was a mistake that added hundreds of years to our return to power, he will return.”

  Naemyn then grabbed her wrist and led her down the stairs where a carriage was waiting for her and threw her in, locked the door and sent her on her way south. Without another word, they carried her away. Though she was being skirted away in the cover of darkness for her safety, they tried to make her trip as pleasant as possible to help calm her anxiety from being displaced. She was not for want of any food, blankets, or pillows. They even allowed her one of her servant girls to keep her company. Still, Traelyn did not speak a word, nor eat any of the food placed in the carriage for her.

  They had only just passed the outer gates when the carriage came to a halt. She heard the elven drivers shout reverence to the king, and then the door was unlocked and opened. King Keiyann Krowe commanded the servant girl to step out, and when she did, he climbed in.

  “Help me Keiyann!” she cried as she held him. “Thank you for saving me, where is Jaerick?”

  Keiyann held her tight for a few seconds, but then pushed her back at arms length still holding on to her shoulders.

  “Jaerick will not be here, and you still have to leave.”

  “Why?” Traelyn asked covering her face with balled fists. “What is going on?

  “I am so sorry, young sweetling. I know I promised your father that I would protect you, and I know you may think I am abandoning that promise, but you are no longer safe here.”

  “That is not true! You are listening to Naemyn! He even told me I am leaving so that he can take over the elven kingdom, he plans to supplant you someday.”

  “That may very well happen, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that does not come to pass. Regardless, you are not safe here. I have arranged with a prominent and powerful human clan to take you in.”

  “This can’t be happening. I want my father back, I want to go home!”

  Keiyann sighed. “I am sorry Traelyn, that cannot happen. Your father may never return.”

  “But that was the reason you sent him away, so that he would return.”

  “That was true when I sent him away. I held the sword of our god Val-Eahea, and the words inscribed upon the sword predicted his return, but I have grown weary of waiting, and I fear some events have occurred that have blocked that prophecy.”

  “Then why must I endure all of this?”

  Keiyann reached over and put his hand under her chin.

  “You must endure, because he still might return. I know it may sound as if I am talking in riddles, but I am going to change events that will ensure that Naemyn cannot usurp my kingdom in the name of his religion, which has grown slightly different from mine. I believe that you and your father are the key to our elven existence, but not in the way Naemyn believes. I also believe that Naemyn and I can work through our differences to come together in an agreement with how the elven race can survive this prophecy. Someday, your father will return and he will help us, not destroy us, and I have something to give you that will help us achieve that goal as well as give you some comfort while we wait.”

  Keiyann reached inside his cloak and pulled out a black silk bag and from it a talisman wrapped around in woven leather and silver chain. The talisman was hardened silver and outlined in gold. The circular talisman had elven inscriptions wrapped around the outer edge leading to the middle where four empty slots to house the four Quarterstar Shards awaited the shards’ return.

  “Take this and keep it with you until a time will come where you are to return it to the elves.”

  “How will I know when to return it?”

  “You will never know until the time comes. In fact, by taking this talisman you will slowly lose your memory of this day, and in time, you will lose your memory of Jaerick as well.”

  “Why would I want that? Why would I choose to be a pawn in your game?”

  “You asked how you were to endure. This is how you will endure. This will take away the pain of your love for Jaerick. You will forget all about him, until the time comes, when your memories are returned to you.”

  Keiyann put the talisman back into the bag and gave it to her.

  “I truly am sorry that this has happened to you Traelyn. I honestly looked forward to raising you as my daughter, a true princess to the elven kingdom, but unfortunately, that could not happen. Your father was a friend to the elven people. I am sorry.”

  Traelyn took the talisman, set it between her legs, and reached over to give Keiyann a hug.

  “Then I will return someday?” she whispered as new tears began to fall.

  “I believe so. I also hope someday you and I will see your father again and help him restore this land from the demise that will eventually fall upon it.”

  Keiyann then left the carriage, commanded the servant to return, and slid the bolt across the door, locking Traelyn inside.

  Traelyn heard Keiyann order the driver to continue with his delivery of her. She would never see King Keiyann Krowe again.

  She travelled for two days, stopping only for short breaks for food and relief. The sun had just set on the second day, but the sky was not quite dark. She heard human voices outside, at first she thought they were going to be attacked and she would die out here in the middle of nowhere, but instead the door opened and from the darkness she was yanked out of the carriage and taken away.

  Someone blindfolded her and threw her on a horse, but befo
re she lost her sight, she saw the humans loose a barrage of flaming arrows, lighting the carriage and killing all of the elves, including her young elven servant.

  The human attackers took her to the tribe and made her comfortable. Before the memory of her experiences with the elves completely faded away, she planted the seeds that Naemyn had given her and was surprised that when she ate the pistil from the blooms she did not age. In doing so, she extended her life many times over. It took her fifty years just to outlive some of the leaders of influence in the human tribes. They did not treat her badly, but she was not treated with much respect either. When her half-elf child was born, they treated her and the baby as if it was diseased. Why they did not kill her outright, she did not know.

  The years passed, and as she worked her way to prominence, mostly due to the fact that she outlived every single elder above her station, she found a growing mistrust and unknown hatred toward the elves. The younger generations now having grown old, realized her wisdom and dominance within the tribes and regarded her just short of being a living goddess, hence the birth of her title as the Great Mother.

  During her long reign, she found that the young men were not very intelligent, but were eager to fight. She encouraged those young men to become motivated warriors to raise arms against the elves, eventually building a moderately strong force that never waged a full scale war, but rather indiscreet raids upon their southernmost stronghold, Fort Stone Elf.

  Then without any known cause, she began to have the dreams about Jaerick and their love for each other. She dreamed that Jaerick was in trouble, and instead of hatred or revenge, feelings of love resurfaced. The feelings were so strong that she felt the need to find Jaerick at all costs. Why, she did not know, only that she had to do this and had to find him now. She might even be able to reconcile some of her love with him as well, though she knew that she would be fooling herself in so many ways to believe that Jaerick would accept her as she is now as she had aged so much, not to mention the political strife between human and elf relations. She had kept this skirmish war alive for near 300 years, and she knew that the elves hated her and her people just as much as Daegon hated the elves.

  She saw so much hatred in her life. Elf versus human and human versus elf, and she saw that hatred in Daegon as they stood together, but Naemyn only smirked confidently, his eyes exposing no hatred whatsoever, and that not only confused her, it terrified her. He was a deceitful person. However, regardless of Naemyn’s ulterior motives, she would proceed with her plan. She held up the Quarterstar Talisman by its chain so that it dangled in front of his face. His smirk immediately disappeared. However, she could not tell whether it was shock and surprise he felt, or excitement to have the talisman so close to his grasp again.

  “Take me to King Jaerick.” Traelyn commanded.

  Naemyn smiled. “I will not do that. If I take you anywhere near the elven kingdom, you will die.”

  “Not as long as I have you with me they won’t.” Traelyn said.

  “I can protect myself from my own people, but I cannot protect you.” Naemyn said shaking his head.

  “I have a massive force that cannot be stopped!” Daegon interjected.

  “Daegon! Shut up! You are out of line!” Traelyn shouted, tired of hearing Daegon’s warmongering.

  “No, you are only fooling yourself,” Naemyn said, laughing while rubbing his chin. “The elves are deeply imbedded into the tangle of the jungle-like forest. You will only lose yourself in the forest, and the elves will strike you, leave you, and hit you again and again until your entire force is demoralized and destroyed.”

  “That is not true. We have attacked Fort Stone elf with a much smaller force and have had some success. With the force I have now, we are unstoppable.”

  “Perhaps, I can do this. If I guide you safely north past all of the traps up to Fort Stone Elf, I might be able to convince the elves there to go farther north to grant you audience to the king.”

  “You fool!” Daegon laughed. “I don’t want audience of the king, I want to kill the king!”

  “She doesn’t,” Naemyn said, pointing to Traelyn. “She wants to be with her lover again. Your great, great grandfather that he is, but as you can see, we are at an impasse. Any movement forward causes a full scale war, but to not go forward means she will not see her lover.”

  The absurdity of the situation made Naemyn laugh hysterically, causing him to bend over to catch his breath.

  “What do you propose?” Traelyn asked.

  Naemyn stood up, still smiling. “I propose that you come with me to the catacombs where one of the Quarterstar Shards are, and we take that talisman to place the shard into it where it belongs and we then present the talisman to the king.”

  “So that you can steal the talisman for yourself?” Daegon asked.

  “No, because my king is having troubling dreams and he believes that this talisman is lost, and horrible events will come to pass if he does not find it,” Naemyn said, turning to face Traelyn and dismissing Daegon.

  “You and I will be helping each other in this endeavor. You will see your lover again, and I will gain the eternal favor of my friend and king by delivering you to him with the talisman. I do not seek the talisman for myself, I only want to please my king,” Naemyn finished, bowing before Traelyn with his hands still bound. Then stood up and took a knee before Traelyn and looked up to her.

  “I welcome you back to the elven kingdom, and I am sorry for your absence, but it is time that you return. Please untie me and let us begin working together. I promise that I will not harm anyone.”

  “Do not fall for his trickery Great Mother! He is the enemy!” Daegon shouted, turning her shoulders to face him.

  “Let go of me son. It is time for me to go home. It is time for me to finish this folly of a prophecy that my father is supposedly part of. I want to be with my father whether it is in this realm or another, and only Jaerick may have the answer to this end. Now untie him, but watch him closely.”

  “Well said my lady,” Naemyn said, turning his back and extending his tied hands to Daegon. “Shall we leave immediately?”

  “Take us to the catacombs Naemyn, but you will be our hostage until we see Jaerick.”

  “This is ludicrous! I cannot believe this is happening,” Daegon shouted as he turned and left, shouting orders while looking for his top commanders. He left Naemyn’s bonds intact.

  Chapter 24

  The dark of night fell upon Naemyn, Traelyn, Daegon, and his men two hours before they reached the catacombs. They rode non-stop in a gray overcast and warm drizzling rain the whole way southeast. As the gray clouds gradually turned darker, they considered stopping for the night, but Naemyn insisted that they press on, they had been travelling almost non-stop for over three days, and Naemyn had grown weary of the journey travelling out of the catacombs, only to travel the three days back again. Though he was excited that the catacombs were within reach, once inside, they would be clear of the gloomy weather that pressed upon their spirits.

  Daegon carried his anger throughout their journey. He could not believe he was part of this folly. He was forced to take this detour away from his mission. At the height of his anger, after Traelyn made it clear that they were going with Naemyn, he assembled his commanders and put Captain Voll in command.

  “Captain Voll, I am promoting you to the rank of Battle-Commander, with all of the power and conditions that I hold on the battlefield. You are now in complete charge of this force while I am away on this farce of a mission. I need to go to find a way to kill this elven mage without destroying the Great Mother’s confidence in me, and if I cannot do that, I will follow them all the way to the king and kill him myself. You will clear a path for us with our force. Make it a wide path o
f destruction. One that I cannot miss to follow.”

  Battle-Commander Voll smiled and saluted. “Thank you for your confidence in me Commander.”

  “I have been watching your progress for many years. You have been superior in my service as Captain of the Scouts, and I am certain you will excel in your new post. However, how well you do here will determine if you will earn a spot on my council with a rank befitting once this war is over.”

  Daegon looked to his eight other commanders, each leaders in their own right with their own companies: Mostly tribes that he used to fight, but now won over and assembled into battle companies.

  In the process of bringing these tribes together, he used their common hatred of the elves to begin their unification. It was a testament to that hatred that so many tribes with different cultures, subcultures and varying beliefs could so cohesively unite to form an effective fighting unit. This proved to be no easy task, and it took many years to come to fruition. Before any dialogue could begin, it took years of combat dominance on the battlefield, years of devastating the morale of all of the opposing tribes, years of the constant pressure of fear.

  His tribe, the driving force of the constant turmoil, and barrier to peace for many years, continued to keep the pressure and chaos intact, so that no two tribes could unite until Daegon realized that the time for unity was right. All it took was to talk to the leaders of the four strongest tribes, assuring them that they must unite to end the dominance of the elves to the north.

  After years of tribal warfare, the humans were ripe for new leadership, as they were tired of being defeated by the elves while fighting amongst each other. It didn’t hurt that the tribes were in such fear of Daegon’s tribe, that they were more than willing to jump at the chance to not only end the terror of Daegon’s tribe, but to join them in a common cause. They did so eagerly, and this compelled the lesser tribes to fall in line. Daegon commanded them to disband their lesser alliances and conflicts with all other tribes and join one of the five main tribes to help unite the alliance in a stronger unit.