Miras Last (16 page)

* * * *

As soon as the light faded, Galena released
Morgo’s hand and dropped to the ground on all fours. Tears flowed
down her face in streams from the memories that consumed her for
those few short moments. She took a cleansing breath and then
turned toward Elenio, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying
her face in his chest.

“I’m sorry,” she cried.

“For what?” he whispered.

“For not being strong enough.”

Elenio cupped Galena’s face in both of his
hands and turned her toward him so he could look her square in the
eye. “You are never to apologize for that again. You are the
strongest person I know. No one could do what you have done in just
a few short months. Your biggest fear is not being able to protect
us, which just shows me how selfless you are.” He stroked the side
of her face with his thumb, still looking her full in the eye.

“I couldn’t have gotten through the cave
without you and I couldn’t have destroyed that stupid stone without
you. How could I possibly be the strongest?” Galena sobbed.

“Because the strongest person is able to
admit when they need help the most. Only the foolish tries to do
everything on their own and they usually lose in the end. Never
forget that.” He pulled her to his chest once more as she fought to
regain control again.

It had all seemed so real. If Elenio hadn’t
helped her through it, she was sure she would have given in to the
thoughts the intuneric’s dark magic seemed to plant within her
mind. Even the sword’s presence had not been able to ward off all
the effects it had on her. It helped her, but Elenio’s words gave
her the strength she needed. She felt him gently stroking her long
hair while he waited for her to calm.

“What if I can’t defeat Rau?”

“If anybody can, it will be you. We knew,
even with the sword, your chances would be slim, because he’s still
an incredible swordsman. However, at least he won’t be able to use
his shadows and dark against you. None of us knows the outcome of
this, but we have to try. You said so yourself.” Elenio said
quietly.

“I know,” Galena said, sighing heavily. “It
was those stupid stones. It showed me the worst of everything and
everything I saw in the cave. It even showed me what I have to gain
by using the stones. It was horrible,” Galena finished, shuddering
as she did. No wonder the elves felt so gloomy around them. They
were pure evil, solidified.

Galena finally turned to Morgo and his
appearance shocked her. He too was on all fours and shaking badly.
He reminded Galena painfully of what she felt like while she was in
the cave.

“Morgo,” Elenio called softly, noticing the
elf for the first time as well. He let go of Galena and placing his
hands on Morgo’s shoulders, shook him slightly. “Morgo, are you
hurt?”

Galena concentrated on him, but found nothing
physically wrong other than his racing heart.

Morgo smiled weakly at Elenio, before sitting
back on his heels. He placed his hands on his legs and fought to
regulate his breathing. “I just need a moment. It appears that
holding Galena’s hand through the ordeal may not have been the best
idea I’ve ever had.” He closed his eyes, a tear trailing down his
cheek as his breathing slowed.

“You saw what I saw, didn’t you?” Galena said
quietly.

Morgo just nodded his head, not saying
anything more.

“I’m sorry.” It was one thing to drag Elenio
through her torments, but it felt completely wrong to have brought
Morgo through the torture.

“Not your fault,” he whispered back.

Galena crawled over to him and wrapped her
arms around his shoulders.

“How you survived that cave is beyond me. No
one else could have.”

Galena squeezed him tighter, trying to hug
the memories and pain away from him.

“You know what the worst part is?” he said,
his voice barely audible. “I have never felt that passionate about
anything in my entire life. That thought alone nearly caused me to
take my own life. How can a person go through life without passion?
If you hadn’t regained some control, I would have ended it
all.”

Galena looked down and saw a knife at his
knees. “Now, that would have been a shame seeing how I knocked
myself out trying to bring you back,” Galena said, smiling slightly
as she pulled back to look at him.

“That’s just it, I couldn’t think past the
pain. I didn’t want to think past the pain. I only wanted it to
stop. When you were finally able to destroy it, I realized I was
holding my own knife at my throat.”

Galena glanced at his throat and saw the
beginnings of a slash. She quickly healed it. She had missed it
before because she had been looking for something larger.

“And you thought you were weak.” He laughed
shakily.

Galena hugged him once more and then pulled
back. “You came back from the Land of the Gods into a world turned
upside down. Weak is definitely not a word I would use to describe
you.”

Elenio stood and helped Galena to her feet as
Morgo closed his eyes once more. Taking another deep breath, which
Galena was happy to see didn’t seem to bother him as it probably
had before.

“Well, one stone down, a whole land of them
to go,” Morgo said, smiling somewhat weakly.

“I’m not sure if I want to try that again,”
Galena said, wincing as more of the horrible memories that had been
fading, popped into her head again.

“I wonder. I felt all of your emotions and
saw everything that you saw. Did you see anything unfamiliar to
you?” Morgo asked quietly.

“That depends on how often have you thought
about using the intunerics to make yourself more powerful,” Galena
said quietly.

Elenio looked alarmed and turned quickly to
see Morgo’s reaction to this.

Smiling in an embarrassed sort of way, he
answered, “Since arriving here, I have unfortunately thought of it
often. When I woke up after you healed me, I noticed the thought
perished so I assumed it had to do with my recent near death
experience. Then Galena told us she removed the stones and I
realized it was the stones placing those thoughts in my head. After
this experience, I am left with no room for doubt on the devious
nature of those stones.”

“Since it was something I never even
considered, I was able to easily dismiss the idea,” Galena said,
her eyes never leaving Morgo’s.

“No, I don’t imagine you would have had that
thought. You have too much light in you for the darkness to corrupt
you such a way.”

Galena decided to rest and Morgo definitely
needed to sleep after their ordeal. If she decided to destroy more
stones, she would start on them only after she had gotten some
sleep and food. She felt completely drained and didn’t want to see
anyone, but Elenio.

Walking hand in hand back to the tent, she
opened the flap and stepped into the quiet dark of their
accommodations. She took a deep breath, remembering Mira and what
she did for her after her encounter with her nightmares. Elenio
pulled her hand and spun her around so she was facing him. He
wrapped his arms completely around her shoulders and kissed the top
of her head. She buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms
around his waist, hugging him tightly to her.

“Once again, you were amazing,” he said into
her hair.

She gave a short bark of laughter that died
out quickly. “That’s not the word I had in mind for myself,” Galena
replied, burying her face further into his chest. “I’m tired of
everything. I just want this whole thing behind me, but it seems no
matter what I manage to do, more and harder tasks await.” Galena
felt a bone crushing weariness that hadn’t been there before, seep
into her very being. She hadn’t realized how exhausted she was
until she spoke the words aloud.

“I know.” Elenio pulled her even tighter into
his arms, making her feel warm and secure.

She just wanted to stay with him in here and
not worry about the rest of the elven world for right now. She
sighed heavily, content for the moment.

“What in the world was with all the light?”
Tark demanded as he let the tent flap fall back into place.

So much for resting a moment.
“Yes,
I’m feeling much better, Tark. Thanks for your concern,” Galena
said sarcastically, pulling away from Elenio to sit down. She
collapsed into the chair wearily, resting her hands on her legs as
she regarded her angry looking brother.

“I assumed you were doing just fine when I
was temporarily blinded by a light that could only come from
you.”

Elenio smiled and sat on the hammock facing
Galena. He rolled his eyes dramatically so only Galena could see,
but said nothing.

“We were conducting another experiment with
Morgo. You know how he likes his experiments,” Galena said, rubbing
her eyes. They stung and itched from being so tired.

“What kind of experiment?”

“The kind where we use light to destroy dark
intunerics.”

“Did it work?” Tark asked anxiously. He
stopped pacing and turned to look at Galena, surprise written all
over his face now.

“Yes.” Galena didn’t feel like going into how
the stones almost overwhelmed her mind with dark thoughts, and how
close Morgo had come to being on the injured list again.

“I take it from the look on your face; it
wasn’t as easy as you thought it would be?” Tark asked, eyeing her
critically.

“That’s a minor understatement,” Elenio said
before Galena could even open her mouth.

Tark looked at him, nodding his head in
understanding.

Galena leaned her head back on the chair and
closed her eyes. She definitely wasn’t looking forward to trying to
destroy more stones any time soon.

“Hmm, that leaves me with a couple of
choices. Nigora needs help with all of the injured elves, but less
intunerics would leave us all in better condition.” Tark started
his pacing again, wondering aloud for Galena and Elenio’s
benefit.

“Let me help you out with that issue. It
takes too much out of me emotionally to try to destroy any more
dark stones right now. I’ll put up a barrier of light around the
camp and maybe that will help protect us from the intunerics until
we’re ready to battle again. Let’s face it, everyone needs the
rest,” Galena said, still rubbing her tired, itchy eyes. “For now,
I’ll go help Nigora. We need to get as many elves ready as
possible.” Galena got slowly to her feet. What she wouldn’t give
for a little sleep herself right then.

Elenio watched her, eyebrows raised. She knew
he was concerned for her and could tell how tired she was. She
shook her head at him, preventing him from speaking his concerns
aloud.

“One thing first—a bit of good news
actually,” Tark said, placing a hand on her shoulder to keep her
from leaving just then. “Nina just told me we have some visitors on
the way. It seems more underground elves have decided to join us
and they’re bringing supplies.”

Chapter
Eleven

“How many?” Galena asked. She could feel a
spark of hope in the pit of her stomach. Finally, something was
going their way!

“Nina couldn’t tell for sure, that’s why I
was headed here, before I was stopped due to a blinding light. Her
best guess was at least fifty elves.”

Galena looked at Elenio who was smiling
broadly.

“Well, let’s take a look shall we?” Galena
retrieved a bowl from beside the chair where she had been sitting.
She could make bowls from tree homes, but as she had discovered
before, you couldn’t make something if you didn’t already have the
necessary materials.

She filled the bowl with water and
concentrated on the pale faces of the underground elves. It was
difficult to do because she couldn’t recall any of the facial
features from any of them, as they had been so completely
forgettable. Thinking more of the general appearance, she was able
to bring up a group of elves walking quickly. She thought of
herself flying back and instantly, the picture in the water started
to change. The elves looked smaller and other features such as the
landscape started to appear in the water. From what she could tell,
the elves were moving at a very brisk pace. They appeared to be
about a day’s journey from where they were camped. Galena quickly
counted the traveling elves twice, not quite believing her eyes.
There were more than a hundred underground elves, all capable of
doing magic, heading this way!

“Looks like Nina’s count was a little low,”
Elenio said, still smiling broadly.

“Granted, none of them have been trained to
fight, but they can help in so many other ways,” Tark said, he too
was smiling. “Did you notice all the sacks on their backs?”

Galena nodded her head, still studying the
picture in the water.

“You know they can carry a ton of stuff in
those sacks because of their ability to shrink it.”

Again, Galena just nodded her head in
response. “When was the last time that you checked with the
patrol?” Galena asked.

“Just this morning, why?”

“Where is the enemy?” Galena saw
understanding filling Tark’s eyes and Elenio sat grimly back.

“They’re starting to surround the majority of
the camp from what the patrol can tell. It’s somewhat hard to see
past the fires. They only get glimpses here and there.”

Galena emptied the bowl with a swipe of her
hand. She placed the bowl back by her chair and strode out of the
tent.
Time to check on the enemy
, she thought grimly.

Elenio and Tark followed her out and into the
area surrounding their tents. Using the wind, Galena rose high into
the air, high enough to see over the wall of flames that encircled
the camp like a living barrier. She saw that the majority of Rau’s
forces were still within their camp, but several hundred had moved
in around the firewall. They appeared to be testing the fire in
different areas without much success. Some of the larger earagos
were attempting to throw stones through the blaze. Galena thought
of this when she first set up the flames and made sure to put up
flickering wall of heat far enough from the camp that they would
not be able to do any harm.