Naemyn smiled. “Because this is just the perfect amount of turmoil I need to finish my mandate.”
“And what is this mandate?”
“I am going to sever the peace of the Val elves and the Sor elves and rule the elves in the purity that they are meant to be. We cannot have the likes of half-breeds weakening our race. We have used the aggressive war-like Val elves that worship the warrior Val Eahea to exhaustion. It is time to use the peaceful Sor elves that worship their god Raezoures to bring back peace to the land and unify our race, as it should be.”
“It sounds like you are taking an aggressive route to make this happen,” she said flatly.
“You have figured out the sole purpose of the Agin-Sorae. That is something your lover king hasn’t figured out yet. We are a secret faction made up of both Sor and Val elves. We are made up of the purest of the Sor and the most aggressive of the Val elves. That is what the Agin-Sorae is for. Since we are Sor elves with the aggressive nature of the Val elves, we no longer need the Val elves’ protection. We will eradicate them just as I will dethrone your lover, my friend and elven king.”
Naemyn leaned over to move a lock of hair away from her face. Traelyn flinched as he did so. “Sleep my child,” he said as he slipped his hand behind her neck and squeezed, coursing his Kronn through his hand and into her being, causing her to slump over fast asleep. Naemyn gently leaned her down on the bench seat and covered her up with the blanket just as the carriage came to a stop.
After a few seconds, the door opened and two elves dressed in battle armor helped him out of the carriage. “Take me to the king,” he said as they closed the door behind him.
The carriage was inside the palace. It was no more than a fortified and elaborate living quarters for the king and his family. Servants and soldiers also lived inside. The inner bailey where the carriage had stopped was a large open expanse layered with grass and decorated rock. Massive trees jutted into the sky, towering over the battlements that towered over the bailey. Every square inch of the walls were covered in ivy. Naemyn took a deep breath, taking in the sight of his home. Things were about to change, he thought to himself as he walked underneath the inner curtain and up the stairs to find the king.
He found the king with his son in the infirmary. The guards at the open door stepped closer together blocking him, but did not raise their swords as they recognized the king’s closest advisor.
“Let him through!” Jaerick yelled, after glancing behind him as he watched two elves attending to his son.
“My king,” Naemyn genuflected, looking down at the ground, “How is the prince?”
“He will survive. His wound is severe, but he is past the worst of it. We arrived just in time. Is Traeyln safe?”
“Yes, my king, she is here now.”
“Thank you Naemyn, for bringing her here safely so that I could save my son.”
“I not only serve you my king, but I am here to help you as your friend.”
“Yes, Naemyn, you have always been here for me,” he said, finally looking up.
“Where is Traelyn? I thought you said she was here.”
“There is a slight complication. Yes, she is here, but she is in the carriage in the inner bailey. She will not leave the carriage until you come to her. She has become fearful after witnessing the chaos in the city.”
“Has it become that bad?”
“The Sor elves are preparing to attack you very soon. It appears they have gained the upper hand in the city. I would suspect that they will be breaching these walls before nightfall.”
“How has this happened? How did anyone receive word that Traelyn was coming?”
“I do not know. It seems we have a traitor in our midst.”
“It seems we have always been dealing with someone in the Agin-Sorae attempting to thwart us at every turn, haven’t we my friend?”
Naemyn did not respond, but turned around and left the room. Jaerick followed as they went downstairs.
“I must ask, where is the dragon?” Naemyn asked as they headed down the spiraling stairs that led out of the infirmary.
“The dragon that you foolishly captured? Well, I have been informed of this foolish decision. I have ordered it to be taken to the the Aestfallia Keep. Right now, it is in a cavern west of here. We will be keeping it there until we can get our dragon speakers to communicate with it and find out why it attacked us. If we find it to be hostile we will take it to the Aestfallia keep and send it away using the Triestones.”
Naemyn smiled and said nothing.
When they reached the inner bailey, Jaerick saw that half a dozen elven soldiers surrounded the carriage.
“Is that really necessary?” Jaerick asked as he approached.
“It is a dangerous time, I prefer to err on the side of caution, my king,” Naemyn said.
“Step aside,” Jaerick commanded as he approached the carriage. The two soldiers closest to the door stepped aside and allowed their king to open the carriage door. Naemyn approached as well, keeping close to Jaerick.
When Jaerick opened the door, Traelyn was still sleeping peacefully underneath the blanket on the bench. “Traelyn, I am here,” Jaerick said softly, but she did not respond.
“What is going on?” Jaerick asked turning to face his friend.
“You will find out soon enough, go inside and wake her,” he said calmly, smiling back at his king.
Jaerick stepped inside, placed his hand on Traelyn’s forehead, and kissed her cheek. “I don’t understand, why is she sleeping?” he asked, looking at his most trusted advisor, but began to fear that something ill was about to befall him. Naemyn stepped inside the carriage, grabbed his friend’s hand, and sent his Kronn into Jaerick causing him to fall into a deep sleep, slumping over in between the two benches.
“Sleep well my friend.” Naemyn said as he stepped out and closed the door. The soldier standing next to him walked behind him, placed a lock on the door, and took his place in the drivers seat on top of the carriage.
“Take them southwest of here until you come to a large lake. There you will receive further instructions as to what to do with our king and his vile mistress.”
As the carriage moved out of the inner bailey heading on its long journey to the wild forested mountains southwest, Naemyn waked back to the top of the battlements.
“We must prepare for war! The humans are coming!” Naemyn shouted and as the warriors scrambled in preparation.
Naemyn then headed back inside the castle and walked directly to one of the sanctuaries. Entering the sanctum of Raezoures, he passed by two guards who obediently allowed his entrance and found one of the Sorae, as he was deep in prayer to his god Raezoures.
“Please forgive my intrusion, but I must interrupt your prayers,” he said, just louder than a whisper.
The elf stood up from the steps in front of a statue of the ancient god. “What can I do for you Naemyn?” he asked, humbly looking to the floor of his leader.
“The king has betrayed us. I need you to go spread the word throughout the land that the king has abandoned us with his human mistress! I will assume the role of king until the prince recovers from his wounds. I will lead the defense of the elven nation. Spread word throughout the city to cease fighting each other and prepare for the humans that will be here before nightfall!”
As he obediently left the room, Naemyn looked at the statue of the god that he too had once worshipped, and began to contemplate the new path he had set himself upon. His guilt began to get the best of him and he struggled to find his resolve. He had sent away his king, his friend that he had known since childhood, the man he had sworn fealty to. He walked over to the window and
looked upon the soldiers below readying for war. The war he had been preparing for had finally come to fruition. The civil war that had been brewing just under their skin for years had finally come to a boil at the same time that they were preparing for the onslaught of the human war machine.
“I have done as you asked!” he yelled out loud to the Guardian and the empty stone walls. “I betrayed my king and my friend as you suggested, now it is your time to come through with what you promised. I have now combined Sorae with the Agin-Sorae to finally be rid of these impure Val elves.”
Naemyn shrugged. He felt awkward yelling to an empty room, but it also felt good to get his frustration out into the open, even if no one heard it. He looked at the statue again and shook his head in frustration, wondering if this god was too weak to deal with his own people. Slowly, he walked over to the hearth to warm his hands when he heard a crack that sounded like wood popping in the fire, except the sound came from behind him. He turned around, slowly at first, but then snapped around quickly when he saw a black shadow out of the corner of his eye.
“What are you doing here, and what are you?” he asked in exaggerated boldness to hide his startled fear.
The black shadow spun like a miniature tornado sucking the air around it and eventually turned blue. It briefly turned into the horned demon Markenhirth, but then transformed into a blue faceless shadowy figure, that for a brief second, Naemyn thought he was looking at a distorted figure of himself.
“You called me, so I came,” the voice said as its shape flickered from its misty form to its icy dark blue shaped horned monster.
“I don’t understand the meaning of this.” Naemyn whined. “I did as instructed by the guardian. I sent my friend and king, my king that I have been loyal to my whole life, away, and possibly to his death.”
“You cannot lie to me Naemyn. I know you and I have and will become you as you will become me. You were never loyal to your friend and king. You despise his weakness to the elven race. You and your Sor elves want to return the elven race to their purest of beginnings. I am merely here to help you and we are here to help each other.
“I will help you return the elves to purity and you will help me escape my imprisonment in the frozen underworld. You have done as promised and will be well rewarded. I leave behind a token of this promise, but use this power wisely, a sacrifice will always be required as payment of use.”
Before Naemyn could respond, the image sparked and crackled loudly and then disappeared, leaving Naemyn alone again in the dimly lit room. He turned to face the statue of his god one more time, but his thoughts were interrupted with shouting from outside the room. He ran to the door, opened it, and found one of the guards tending to the other guard who had fallen to the ground.
“What is going on?” he asked, disgusted at the intrusion.
“He just passed out,” the guard responded as he checked his pulse. “He is dead.”
“Get him out of here, we cannot have this kind of distraction right now.”
The guard grabbed his fellow soldier by the ankles and dragged him down the hallway and out of sight. Naemyn was about to go back into the sanctum, but became distracted by a popping sound where the dead soldier had once stood guard. A blue substance swirled on top of the stone floor. Naemyn bent over to reach into the swirling mass, and just as his hand was about to touch it, the swirling stopped and formed into a solid blue shard.
He picked it up and stared at it. As he did so, he could see the black and blue swirling inside the shard. He could feel its power. Instantly he knew what this shard was. He was holding a broken off piece of the fourth Quarterstar, the dark heart shard. A portion of the Markenhirth’s dark Kronn heart as it was separated at the time of the realm’s creation. He could use this dark heart to summon the spirit of the Markenhirth, and something told him that this would eventually be a force of power to help him achieve his goals.
Naemyn smiled to himself, put the shard in his pocket, and walked down the hallway to prepare for the human siege that would only be a few days away.
Chapter 30
Voll and Commander Urish stood on top of the highest hill amongst a cluster of thick and large deep green-needled evergreen pine trees. Just five miles away on a large forested hill on the opposite side of the valley rested the fortress of the elven capital. They might not have even seen the fortress sitting atop the hill; it was so discreetly covered by the trees and foliage. The fortress, blending in with its surroundings, lay largely obscured. Any pathway to move the forces up to attack the fortress equally lost.
They watched the elven people hard at work on their farms and ranches below. The serene valley below had given Voll a false sense of peace. He knew that he would be bringing death and destruction to these people. Though in his mind they deserved every ounce of terror he could deliver, he still felt pity for what was about to come.
They left a small detachment at fort Stone Elf and now they were only a few miles south of the elven city of Aalararae. Their forces had marched north for five days to reach the city. They moved over two thousand men, horse, and equipment slowly and laboriously until they were just a few miles short of this valley. They did not stop until sunset and were up again just before dawn. They did not dare travel at night, as they would be clumsily travelling through the thick enemy forest. They stayed on the road, and their scouts immediately captured or killed any travellers that they encountered.
At one point, Voll’s scouts reported that they were on the trail of the dragon that the elves had captured, but somehow they lost their trail.
“How can you lose the trail of dragon that is tied up upon a wagon??” Voll yelled at his scouts.
“They went into a hillside and never came out.”
“What do you mean they went into a hillside and never came out? The dragon is huge. Did they go into a cave or around the backside of the hill? I don’t understand what you are saying.”
“That is just it commander, we don’t know. The wagon, the elven soldiers, the dragon just went straight into the side of the hillside and disappeared,” he said, looking straight into Voll’s eyes, pleading for understanding.
Voll turned his back on his scout leaving him to contemplate his failure to provide adequate answers to his commander. Voll burned with anger against the elves that aggressively attacked and captured Aegyn. Aegyn was not his friend, however, he did feel the bond between them. He could not quite describe it, but he did feel connected to the dragon.
The Elves stood idle as the dragons destroyed the human villages south of the Dragon Cross Mountains. It was this attitude that caused Voll and his tribe to hate the dragons and the elves, but this relationship with Aegyn changed his view of the dragons slightly. He still hated what the dragons did, but Aegyn’s compassion for him during that time helped him feel a shared compassion for her.
He wanted to find a way to help her, but it was more important for him right now to get his forces to the elven capital, attack, and take it over. Lying on his stomach next to Urish, he focused on the elven farmers peacefully working their crops. It made no difference that these elves had never been a part of the force that attacked the human tribes - he did not care- he wanted revenge on all the elves.
“How do you suppose we get to their fortress?”
“How soon can we get a force down there to burn that village to the ground?” Voll asked his sub commander.
* * *
The elven farmers screamed in terror as the massive army rolled over the hill. Five hundred ragged men in leather armor ran down the hill waving their swords and shields yelling at the top of their lungs. The peaceful farmers had never seen an invasion of any type in their lives as no human force had ever come this close to their beautiful elven capital. Voll had sent the firs
t force down to harasses and terrify the people, but as the elves scattered they soon found that their western flank was blocked by human spearmen. Nestled in the woods, the spearmen jumped up from their prone positions when the elves approached. With a loud grunt, they stood firm with their spears affixed toward the enemy, blocking their escape to the west.
The elven villagers turned and ran north up to a hidden path to what they hoped would be safety. They clearly did not want to expose the hidden path, but the fear for their lives superseded their need to keep their secret safe. A solid green wall of ivy that wrapped itself tightly amongst a tight cluster of pine trees slipped away and separated itself from the trees exposing a tunnel like trail leading deep into the tangle.
Voll saw the vines unwrap themselves from the trees allowing the elves to escape to the north. Voll seized the opportunity and commanded the bulk of his army to charge down the hill and follow the fleeing villagers through the tangled forest.
The cavalry charged down the hill followed by five hundred more screaming swordsmen on foot. The horsemen spurred the horses, charging them to sprint directly through the opening before it could close upon itself. A handful of cavalrymen followed through the opening just as the last of the elven farmers crossed into the forest. Their swords gleamed in the filtered sunlight as they swooped down upon the fleeing villagers, slaying them inside the forest path just when the elves thought they had escaped. As the last elf lay dying, the vines began to untangle and charge after the horsemen as snakes looking for mice ready to satisfy their hunger.
The vines sealed the opening behind the handful of horsemen that made it through. Voll first heard his men yelling at each other, then heard swords slicing through vines and hardened wood, followed by terrified screams of men and horse. The screaming only lasted a handful of seconds before they were silenced by loud crunching sounds of wood and bone.
“Burn it down!” Voll shouted. “Burn it all down, the village, the forest, all of it, light it up!”
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