Even before Voll finished his command, his sub commanders were ready for the call, and had their archers light their arrows and send them flying through the sky. The forest on the north side of the valley was out of reach, but the village was not, and within minutes, homes, barns, and dried crops were beginning to burn. The remaining elves that still lingered in the village began to scatter and run for their lives.
“Charge to the forest! I want the forest on fire, let’s choke out, and burn the vile pointy-eared vermin!” Voll commanded as the smoke began to rise out of the valley.
The humans charged into the valley, disappearing into the smoke. Voll heard the screams of elves dying by sword and arrow. Voll felt his horse shift its weight underneath him. He reached over and patted the horse’s neck suspecting he was feeling the anxiety of his actions. He had just commanded his men to destroy and execute innocent beings. The screams of what he was certain included women and children made him very uneasy.
The screams of terror and sounds of death only lasted about thirty minutes. Voll waited for the smoke to clear before moving into the valley. He could see through the clearing smoke that most of the buildings burned down quickly, leaving only a smoky haze from the smoldering fires. Voll found his commanders giving orders to the warriors as they searched the unburnt buildings for survivors. They had already found a handful of mostly elven woman and children. It seemed that in the killing frenzy even his most hardened warriors steered clear of at least some of the women and children. Even though he had given the command to kill them all, he felt relieved that many had disobeyed that order.
Voll watched a handful of his warriors round up the survivors, placing them in one of the small barns that remained untouched by the fires, when Urish spotted him and spurred his horse towards him.
“We could not light the forest on fire,” he said as he approached. “It must be protected by magic. Every arrow that fell into the forest would not light it. I even had torches made and we attempted to light the forest where the elves escaped through, but it still would not catch.”
“Then it is good that we have survivors, we can use them as hostages, because I am certain that the elves will retaliate for what we have done today. Post men around the barn with torches ready to light, if the elves attack we will light the barn on fire.”
“We had better have an escape plan if you do that, because they will have no reason to hold back,” Urish cautioned.
“I have a better plan that that.” Voll countered. “We will be ready for them when they come. If my plan works out right, we won’t need the hostages, but if we do, I will have a plan for that as well.
“We will prepare for an attack and set up a defensible perimeter here, but more importantly, I have a hunch that we are going to have an angry dragon mother on our side before any fighting starts,” Voll said, not smiling, but looking toward the forest where the elven capital was safely nestled deep in the tangle.
Chapter 31
When Naemyn entered the king’s council room, he was already in a foul mood. He had heard the reports that humans had made their way north to the borders of their capital and had destroyed the southernmost village in the kingdom. He should have expected as much, he had encouraged their commanders to follow them north and rescue Traelyn, but he did not expect them to be so destructive so quickly. Now he was being summoned to give order on what to do with the dragon that they had just captured.
He had just left Greynim’s quarters with news that the king’s son would recover from his wounds. He was assured the prince would need to stay in his quarters for at least a month and was in no condition to be making decisions, as he was barely staying conscious for more than a few minutes at a time.
Naemyn knew that he had to work quickly if he was to achieve his goals of retaking the elven kingdom and returning the power to pure elven hands. The passive Sor elves that lived here did not deserve to rule beside the aggressive impure Val-elves. Only the purest of the Sor with the aggressive nature of the Val that make up the Agin-Sorae were worthy of ruling the elven race.
When he entered the king’s council chambers, all members of the King’s Sorae were sitting erect, showing an air of confidence and hubris. He made eye contact with two of the members that were a part of his secret sect, the Agin-Sorae. He now knew how King Jaerick felt when he entered, knowing that his Sorae aggravated him dearly. The king had mentioned to him many times that their smugness and arrogance irritated his core being. Now standing before them he saw firsthand exactly what he meant.
“What is happening Naemyn? Why are the humans at the footsteps of our capital? How did you let this happen?” One of them asked, placing both hands on the table, leaning forward with his elbows pointing outward. Others mumbled in agreement, as he settled down in his chair.
Naemyn sat down in the king’s large stone chair, placing his feet on the edge of the table just as King Jaerick often did. “You know, I could get used to this,” he said looking at one of his Agin-Sorae members. He wanted to give a confident wink, but he did not want to look to overzealous, but he did like the feeling of throwing some hubris back at the arrogant so-called advisors to the king.
“The humans are falling into my trap,” he began after looking at each member’s eyes for a few seconds before moving on to the next. “We fought them at the Stone Pit and then at Fort Stone-Elf. We captured a dragon and then strategically retreated here. I purposely urged them on to come and attack us.”
“Why would you do that?” one of them interrupted, “You have just caused many elven farmers to die by their hands, and we have lost one of our most productive villages.”
“A minor sacrifice to achieve our end game,” Naemyn stated, showing no intimidation.
“Please explain yourself then,” one of them demanded.
“I planned on informing you right now,” he said, leaning back in the chair, keeping his feet on the table. “As you know, the prince was severely wounded at the Stone Pit. Unfortunately, he will not recover for many weeks, and the king in his grief has urgently left the kingdom to seek help from elven spirits.” Naemyn smiled, as he almost believed the lie himself.
“The king is gone?” another asked.
“Yes, the king has left with the human queen and now the humans feel he has kidnapped her and they attack us for her safe return.”
“What is the truth, Naemyn? Did the king take her or is he seeking the spirits?” another asked.
“Where is he going to find these spirits? Back to the catacombs?”
“Why did he take the queen of our enemy?” two of them asked at the same time.
Naemyn lifted his feet, stepped down from the chair, and walked to the large window, looking out to the west briefly before turning to face them.
“He is seeking an ancient breed of elven spirits to the west, and he is taking his once lover to them as a sacrifice for their favor to return with these spirits to win this war once and for all,” he lied.
“That is not possible! Those spirits cannot be spoken to, they will destroy him.”
“Which is why we must assume our king will not return, and in his place, and until Greynim recovers, I will assume responsibilities of king and commander of the elven defense.”
“Do you think that is wise?”
“I don’t see why not. I have known the king all of his life, I have been named his personal advisor, and head of the Sorae. I don’t see what could be better.”
They all mumbled amongst each other leaning to one direction or another attending to different conversations for many minutes, before a member of the Agin-Sorae spoke up, “We will allow this, Naemyn, tell us your plan.”
Without a word, Naemyn returned to the chair, but did not place his feet on th
e table. “The dragons are going to win this battle for us, they will attack the humans before our forces meet on the field of battle.”
“And how do you propose to get a dragon to do our bidding?”
“We have captured a young dragon at Fort Stone-Elf and the mother will come and kill the humans in order for us to return her youngling to her.”
“This is madness!” many of them yelled, standing up. “You cannot do this. The dragons are a part of us as the land is a part of us! You cannot defile the bond!”
“It is this bond that will bring all the elves together in victory!” Naemyn responded. “This act will strengthen our bond and annihilate the humans once and for all.”
“Look at our faces. Can’t you see that we all do not agree?”
“I don’t care. You need to trust me on this. I have been in touch with a higher calling, higher than the elven gods Raezoures and Val-Eahea. You need to trust me on this, when this is done you will all agree that the elven race will be stronger, more powerful and more pure than it has ever been.”
“You have lost your senses Naemyn! You cannot be in communication with gods higher than our two elven gods,” one of them responded.
“No, I have not. On the contrary, because of this, I have not seen our agenda more clearly. Soon you will see that the two races of elves will finally be united as one race. We will no longer need the Sorae to intermediate to the king assuring the two races work together. This has been necessary for far too long. This whole ordeal with the human Dar Drannon has plagued the elven races for far too long. We will finally control our own destiny.”
Naemyn sat down in the chair and looked at the council. He waited to see the reaction. When their only reaction was silence, he stood up, straightened out his robe, and walked out of the room.
* * *
Naemyn watched Aegyn as she lifted her head and roared. She released a breath of fire that filled the lower end of the cave where she was chained down. She could only move her head as her legs were clamped and chained to unmovable solid rock, and metal mesh netting wrapped around her body held her wings tightly against her back. She struggled for hours trying to free herself, but was unsuccessful in every attempt. She thrashed and roared fiercely, but every movement only made the bindings on her wings tighter.
Naemyn stood next to three very skinny elves dressed in worn and smoke infused protective dragonscale armor. They were dirty and disheveled from travelling with the dragon and then securing her to the cavern. They watched the last fireball work its way nearly to the top of the narrow rocky precipice that had a small overhang overlooking the dragon. They felt the smoke and heat rise as the angry dragon squirmed and thrashed her neck back and forth.
“This is beautiful,” Naemyn admitted.
“We don’t understand the reason behind this,” one of the elves admitted. “The dragon is so angry, what do you intend to do to her?”
“I intend to release her during the battle to destroy all of the humans.”
“But you don’t understand dragons. She is so angry she will destroy everything. Humans, elves, the forest. Everything!”
“You are correct, that is what I am hoping she will do. Mass destruction of the humans and elves.”
“But…” was all that the elf could get out before Naemyn grabbed him by the breastplate and threw him into the pit. Aegyn’s quick eyes saw the elf fall and quickly sent another fire blast towards the elf, immediately scorching his exposed skin. He screamed only for a second, but was silent by the time he crumpled to the ground in a mass of burnt flesh.
Before the other elf could respond, Naemyn grabbed him by the arm, swung him to the ground, and pinned him down on his chest with his chin over the ledge looking down at the dragon. Aegyn watched from fifty feet below waiting for a little more revenge on the elves. Naemyn saw the dragon’s eyes watching and saw fear and hate in her eyes. It made him pause to see emotion in such a great beast.
He grabbed the hair on the back of the elf’s head. He was about to scoot his weight forward enough to drop him over the edge when a dark blue mist swirled in the crevice below. The blue and black mist swirled until it formed the shape of an elf wearing a long black hood. Naemyn could barely see the features of the elf. He recognized it as the same apparition that came to him in his chambers, but then the features were obscured. There in the cavern, he was beginning to see more facial details of this dark elf. What he saw began to terrify him.
“I am waiting,” a voice echoed eerily throughout the chamber. Naemyn thought he was the only one who could hear the voice, but the elf he had pinned to the ledge strained his neck to look back at Naemyn in confusion, obvious that he heard the voice.
“Waiting for what?” Naemyn spoke slowly.
“To finish your betrayal to your king and kingdom.”
“What if I don’t want to complete this?” Naemyn asked, beginning to doubt his purpose.
“It is too late. You cannot turn back. You started this with the killing of Terson and Elsron back in the catacombs. You have proven yourself worthy. This is what you and the Agin-Sorae have been waiting for and now I will guide you with every step to complete your destiny.”
Naemyn cocked his head and patted the back of the elf underneath his knee. “I am sorry. You have been loyal to the king, and for your loyalty, you will pay the ultimate sacrifice. Your death will be remembered.”
Naemyn stood up and without any hesitation propped his foot between the elf’s legs and shoved him off of the ledge. The elf tried to grab the ledge to save himself, but found nothing that he could take hold of. His body followed his head all the way down to the bottom of the crevice. His armor crashed loudly, subduing the sound of his neck snapping.
Aegyn lifted her head, and pawed at the elf, as a cat would do a dead mouse attempting to wake it up and play with it. When she realized that the elf was dead, she exhaled a puff of flame and smoke that incinerated the body inside of the armor, leaving an empty shell full of bone and ash. Aegyn, bored, lowered her head down, and gave up any more effort to escape and fell asleep.
Naemyn looked over the ledge at the dragon and searched for the apparition, but he must have been satisfied with that action, because it had disappeared. Naemyn straightened his robe and left the cavern with his head down, deep in thought as to how he was really going to carry out his new mandate. He had always wanted the Agin-Sorae to succeed, but this was not quite the way he envisioned. However, he did smile to himself when he realized that even though this wasn’t how he realized it would come about, he knew the elven kingdom was about to go through a massive transformation that would have him on top and in control.
As Naemyn exited the cavern, the sun was beginning to set, and he smiled an anxious smile as a trail of dragon smoke followed him out. As the smoke left the cavern, it first made the form of a dragon and then took the form of a human skeleton before disappearing into the air.
Chapter 32
Traelyn awoke first. She had no idea how long they had been travelling. Her neck ached from sleeping in such an awkward position, but she was amazed how different this ache felt in her young body compared to the aged and decrepit old body she had become accustomed to during the passed two hundred years. Their carriage bumped and bounced along a forested road lined with large pine trees. She looked out the window and had no idea where they were going.
“Jaerick,” she said reaching over and shaking his shoulder.
Jaerick opened his eyes and snapped awake once he realized he wasn’t necessarily in a safe place.
“Where are we?” he asked as he sat up and placed his head out of the window.
“I don’t know. I have never seen evergreens this massive before,” she said.
Jaerick looked out the window again and realized that they were in the western forests of the Molydenum Woods. He had never been there, but he had heard tales of a small population of an ancient race of wood elves that inhabited the forest.
“Where are you taking us?” Jaerick yelled to driver pounding on top of the roof on the carriage. When there was no response he grabbed the handle of the door and shook it violently, hoping to break it free, but it held tight.
“I guess we are just going to have to wait,” he said calmly, looking to Traelyn and expecting her to be rattled, but she leaned forward, laughing silently while shaking her head.
“The elven king is no longer in control,” she said smiling.
“No, you are right, I am not used to being a prisoner.” Looking at her, he felt his anger subside. Her beauty brought back fond memories of their short time together, “I missed you so much,” he said, not being able to control his emotions for her.
“No you didn’t,” she countered. “You forgot about me just as I forgot about you. How can you miss something or someone you cannot remember?”
“You know what I mean?” he said.
“No, I don’t. Why don’t you explain,” she said, feigning anger, but covered her mouth when she giggled like a little girl.
“That! That is what I am talking about. Your feistiness, it drove me crazy back then, just as it is driving me crazy now. All I wanted to do was be with you. I was willing to give up my position on the throne. If given the chance I would have convinced my father to name Naemyn the heir, but sadly, they didn’t give me that chance. They took you from me. No, they ripped you from me.
“You have to believe me Traelyn, I had no idea what was happening that day on the beach. They took you from me without a chance to defend myself, or even to accept our fate and say goodbye. I will make Naemyn pay for that, for everything, now that I am coming to see the truth in all of this.”
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