Arbiter (The Arbiter Chronicles Book 1) (25 page)

Elrithea’s horses moved like wind, the ground underneath them falling away as the three moved closer and closer to Berais’s lands. They tired seldom and needed little rest, a feat that Cathel remarked on a few times along their travels. They were Ivali-born, he said—they had to be. Rae knew next to nothing about normal horses, but when she saw Naraisel regarding her solemnly out of the corner of his eye as the horse placidly grazed in one of the spots they had stopped in for the night, she realized that she believed him.

The speed at which they traveled was almost worth how sore she got from it. Within the space of a few weeks, the expansive forest that surrounded them began to thin, giving way to wide, sweeping grasslands. The path they were on cut through the grasses. They grew tall on either side of the three of them. While standing, Rae could just barely see over the tops, and she didn’t consider herself short. Mika, on the other hand, was often completely lost in the waves of grass. It was a completely different form of scenery, signifying that they had once again made a transition into uncharted waters.

They were in the Warrior’s lands now.

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Rae watched as Cathel and Mika led the pack, trudging along on foot behind them with Naraisel’s reins in hand. She winced as she walked, her legs still sore from the amount of time they had spent in the saddle. A group of wandering Ivali had told them that Berais’s castle was not far off, that if they continued along this path, they would see it in three days. She was glad for it, because she was getting tired of smelling like horse and seeing the same grassy scenery surrounding her on all sides.

Still, she supposed it could have been worse. Berais’s lands didn’t give her the same unsettling feeling that Elrithea’s lands had given her, and they weren’t as ethereally magical as Alcian’s. They were, if she was being honest, the most normal thing she had seen since coming to the Twilight Realm, counting her short stint in the Safelands.

Naraisel let out a huff from beside her, and she unconsciously reached out, resting her gloved hand on the horse’s neck as she watched Cathel and Mika. The two of them were walking as well, and Mika was chattering on about something or another. She wondered what it was. Since leaving Elrithea’s castle, Cathel and Mika seemed like they had become fast friends, although from the look on Cathel’s face, it seemed like he was listening to her more to humor her than because he was truly interested in what she was saying. Rae smiled faintly and shook her head, turning her attention to the scenery around them.

“Can’t wait until we find civilization?” she asked, looking over at Naraisel. The horse regarded her with one eye, and Rae shrugged, looking back at the road. “Me neither.”

Even if that civilization came at the hands of a High Lord ominously nicknamed the Warrior, and one that Elrithea herself had taken the time to warn Rae about. She sighed slightly, her fingers curling tighter around Naraisel’s reins as she scanned the grass in front of them.

That was when she got her first inkling that something might be wrong.

Rae’s eyes narrowed, immediately darting to the grass on her left. Since leaving Elrithea’s castle, she found that she was more attuned to presences—to Cathel and Mika’s human presences, and to the presences of Ivali that they encountered in the woods. She usually left her mental walls up as Elrithea had instructed her, but she had gotten so accustomed to Cathel and Mika by now that they were nothing but faint murmurs. In a crowd, such as when they had stopped to ask directions from the Ivali troupe that they had encountered earlier, she found that she got disoriented, unable to tell the presences apart.

But out here in isolation, they were easy to detect. The sound of rustling grass from beside her only confirmed it. Something was out there.

“Cathel!” she shouted, looking back at the front of the group.

Cathel reacted almost immediately, turning towards the left and drawing his sword. His blade rose up in front of him just in time, blocking the black sword that came bearing down on him. Its wielder burst out of the grass, a man-shaped form covered from head to foot in deep black armor. Mika let out a shocked shriek, jumping out of the way of the attack. Rae quickly summoned shadow to her hand, darkness curling around her fingers as the attacker drew his sword back, slashing at Cathel.

Cathel stepped back, shifting his sword so that he was gripping it in both hands. He raised the blade up, catching the strike and pushing it away from him as he stepped in, closer to the armored man. His opponent disengaged, taking a half-step back. Rae’s fingers closed around the shadow she was preparing, and she took a deep breath, ready to launch it towards him when Cathel lunged, incidentally getting in the way of her shot. She grit her teeth, quickly pulling the shadow back and watching with bated breath as Cathel’s sword skittered across the man’s armored forearm, the hilt of his opponent's sword swinging down towards his head.

The whip of shadow in her hand went flying, wrapping around the armored man’s wrists and pulling him off balance just long enough for Cathel to slide out from under him, thrusting his sword at a gap in the man’s armor.

The man leaned forward before Cathel could reach him, kicking at the mage. His boot struck Cathel square in the stomach, Cathel's sword missing its target and scraping harmlessly against his armor. She saw Cathel double over, thrusting his sword point first into the ground and leaning on it. The man moved quickly, pulling his wrist out of Rae’s grasp and raising his sword up towards Cathel.

Rae let out a shout of anger, rushing towards him with shadows trailing behind her from both hands. Her hands slammed into the man’s chest, the shadows propelling her forward and pushing both her and him away from Cathel. The armored man let out a grunt of pain from behind his helmet, but he quickly swung his sword arm towards her, the arm catching her in the stomach. Rae gasped as the impact drove the air from her lungs and he pushed her away, sending her to the ground.

“Rae!” shouted Mika, running towards her and placing her hands on her shoulders to help her up as she attempted to push herself up off the ground.

The ground rose up around the armored man in a circle, spikes of earth shooting towards him to impale him. Rae looked up from her position on the ground, one arm wrapped tightly around her middle, just in time to see Cathel getting to his feet, his green eyes blazing with anger as he gripped his sword tightly in his hands. The armored man twisted around and gripped his sword in both hands, swinging it in a powerful blow that tore off the points of the three spikes that rushed towards him. He paused to stare at Cathel as the mage faced him.

“Leave her alone,” said Cathel, a warning in his voice. The edge of his sword gleamed dangerously, seeming impossibly bright even for the full sunlight they were standing in. “Or I will kill you.”

The armored swordsman didn’t stop to consider this, instead rushing towards Cathel. Cathel raised his sword to block it, and Rae heard the scrape of steel on steel, saw, impossibly, Cathel’s sword carve a small notch in the armored man’s dark blade. The armored man stepped back, and Cathel advanced, the point of his sword digging into the man’s armor and cutting a line through it. The blade came away, the tip of it wet with blood. Rae stared in surprise as the armored man straightened up, drawing a knife that had been concealed on his leg and stabbing at Cathel. Cathel raised his sword up in front of him to block the strike, and Rae’s eyes widened as she saw the edge of the sword slam into the knife’s blade, cutting it cleanly in two.

The swordsman didn’t stagger back this time. Having clearly anticipated this, he drew back his sword, thrusting the black point straight at Cathel’s chest.

The world slowed down. Rae was on her feet before she knew it, the suddenness of her rising causing Mika to stumble back. She saw the shadows around her hands as a twisting mass, a seething tangle of black coils fueled by anger as they rushed towards the swordsman. They wound tightly around the point of his sword, tugging him backwards sharply and pulling the blade from his hands.

The action startled the man just enough for Cathel to recover. He took a step back and held his sword tightly in both hands, stabbing viciously at the swordsman’s armor. for a moment, Rae thought that the fight would be over, but the swordsman reacted quickly, sidestepping the blow. He brought his hand down on Cathel’s wrist, pushing the mage’s sword arm out of the way in what would have been a gentle movement, had his free elbow not immediately come up to slam into the side of the mage’s face.

Cathel stumbled back, and Rae caught sight of blood. She saw red. Her hands moved, and in an instant, the shadow twisted, forming dark blades that hovered in the air briefly before rushing towards the man, point first. The swordsman turned, and Rae could feel him looking at her from beneath his helmet. Time slowed in that moment, and suddenly he was in rushing towards her, his knife in his hand. One of the shadow blades struck him, the magic cutting through the side of his armor, but just one, the others falling harmlessly around him. Rae had a split second to admire what he had done, to realize that in the mere moments before her attack came crashing down, he had evaluated the situation and decided which attack he could safely take, before the full force of him bore down on her, throwing her to the ground.

She hit her head on the ground on the way down, feeling the impact knocking the wind out of her as her back and shoulders struck the ground as well. In an instant, she was pinned beneath the swordsman, his black knife pressed against her neck. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him, her breathing heavy. Her heart beat quickly in her chest, her pulse fluttering beneath the knife in his hand.

He was breathing raggedly too. Rae wouldn’t have been able to notice, if he wasn’t so close to her. She could hear the sound of his breath coming from underneath his helmet, could see the blood trickling from the wounds she and Cathel had inflicted on him. They had both used magic, and he had still won. Was this the power of the Ivali?

No, Rae realized, her eyes widening in sudden shock as she felt, truly felt for the first time the strength of the man’s presence through Elrithea's Decadal spell, the pulse of his Source fluttering above hers. Because that was what this magic was, in the end, the ability to read a person’s Source, to gain insight into their aura. She had missed it when the man attacked, because honestly, she hadn’t expected to feel it here, so far into the Edgelands, so completely ensconced by the lands of the Ivali.

She hadn’t expected to feel an aura like this.

“Y-You’re—You’re human…”

The world froze for the span of a breath.

Rae felt his hesitation suddenly, a rippling undercurrent beneath his earlier determination. She felt Mika’s surprise and Cathel’s still seething anger as the mage pulled himself to his feet. She felt the man staring at her from beneath his mask. And then she felt it.

The sudden pull of recognition.

Immediately followed by mortification, disbelief and remorse.

The man pulled the mask from his head, his gray eyes widening as he looked down at Rae. He didn’t look much older than her. In fact, she might have been inclined to say he was either her age or younger, despite the fact that he definitely had her in height. His hair was deep black that matched his armor, his skin fair, but slightly tanned from the sun. She stared. She’d expected him to be older.

“Arbiter?” he asked, removing the knife slowly from her neck.

She took a deep breath, now that she could breathe, and nodded once.

The man immediately scrambled off of her, and Rae got to her feet, still stunned that she had found another human here. “I-I'm so sorry,” he said giving her a rushed bow. His face reddened, and he lowered his head. “I-I was not aware that you would be arriving so soon. The message from High Lord Elrithea—.” He took a deep breath, slowly shaking his head as he regained his composure. “Please forgive the way I treated you. We've—these lands have had bandit trouble lately. When I heard you shout, I thought you were one of them.”

She hesitated, watching from behind the man as Cathel slowly stood up, Mika immediately going to help him. Cathel’s lip was bleeding, a rapidly darkening bruise starting to form on the side of his face. He held his sword loosely in his hand as he eyed the man. “Who are you?” he asked.

“Forgive me,” said the swordsman, bowing. “My name is Selde Eithel, servant and student of High Lord Berais.”

“Student?” asked Mika, her eyes wide. “But you’re human!”

“Uh-yes,” said Selde, turning towards Mika. “My family serves High Lord Berais. He's been known to take human apprentices occasionally.”

“That’s not the point,” said Cathel. “Where did you come from?”

Selde gave Cathel a puzzled look, as if trying to figure out what the mage meant to ask. “I'm from Velleter,” he finally said. “It's not far from here.”

“Not far from here…” repeated Cathel, shaking his head. “That’s impossible. We’re deep inside the Edgelands.”

“…Yes…” said Selde slowly, as if he was talking to a very small child, or someone who didn’t seem to understand a basic concept. “...And?”

“There aren’t supposed to be any humans in the Edgelands!” 

Selde watched Cathel, and then something clicked. Rae noticed his sudden surprise, the way he regarded Cathel with newfound wariness, like a cat that had just discovered the innocent twig he had found in the woods was actually a snake. His hand drifted close to his waist, and Rae had no doubt that he had a weapon hidden in there somewhere. She tensed, ready to intervene in case he attacked.