The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) (33 page)

Less than a month later and with their troops barely in place their fears were proved correct, and a massive army was seen on the horizon approaching the castle.

The DeNaga’s had allied themselves with more creatures that appeared to have been enhanced with the DeNaga’s powers. The dragons which had assaulted the castle were also with the massive army, circling overhead.

The war that commenced was vicious and hard, with both sides taking many casualties. The enhanced creatures were a formidable foe. Even a slash from one could mean death as many were venomous. Giant scorpions climbed the castle walls and shadow creatures flashed amongst the dim corridors. The four DeNaga’s who had absorbed the elemental children’s gifts exhibited the powers and even without the time to truly master them, they were able to utilize those powers with devastating results.

Several of the Mestarn’s whisked the members of the Thalian line to safety at the Southern Keep and kept guard over them. The remaining Mestarn’s were desperate. The fight was not going well and the chance of the DeNaga’s winning was increasing. Linking hands they sent out a call to all gifted and willing creatures asking for help in their time of need in exchange for alliance with Elion.

Several species responded and some troops of Goblins, who are renowned for their skill in archery, arrived along with Halenine Faeries. An exceptionally quick fae with a fatal bite. The odds appeared to improve for the Mestarn’s, then twelve griffons appeared in the sky and offered their services to the Mestarn’s. Astonished, they joyfully accepted the offer. The griffons tipped the scales in the Mestarn’s favor and the only surviving DeNaga’s with the stolen powers fled the land again.

The Mestarn’s watching over the Royal family brought them back to the castle. As neither side was in a position to finish the fight the DeNaga’s set to practicing with their stolen gifts while the Mestarn’s and the Thalian line worked on their relations with their new allies and set shields in place to warn them if their enemies attempted to invade again.

Due to the immense damage to the castle they decided to rebuild it and moved it to a more secure site, where it is now. Those gifted with the ability to work with stone were hired from all over the globe and the new castle was built from a gleaming white stone called Senolite.

The Mestarn’s kept a close eye on the four remaining DeNaga’s over the next millennium and while they learned more about their stolen powers and did horrific things to their realm with them, they did not risk another attack on Elion. They, instead, appeared to focus on bringing their numbers back up.'

Elena shifted in her seat and smiled wickedly at us.

'But what the DeNaga’s did not know was that, unlike our families’ gifts, the elemental powers cannot be inherited by those born to them. They realized too late that they would lose the stolen powers, which was a minor comfort to us. My family turned to studying history in an attempt to find out more about the elementals. The study took them far and wide to many obscure places and could be incredibly frustrating at times. The little information they did manage to dig up told them this:

The Elementals are very rare and possibly even the same spirits being re-born.

Those born as Elementals will be natural leaders and generous by nature, never power hungry.

An Elemental born to royal lineage may be able to pass the powers on to their offspring.

Elementals appear to have much longer life spans than the norm.

So unfortunately while the information was interesting it didn’t really help to understand Elementals any more than they already did.

After a few more millennia four babies were born, again with the gifts of the elements. The Mestarn’s sensed the babies’ arrivals and took them and their families back to the castle to live under its protection. This time the children grew up happy and healthy and learned to utilize their gifts effectively. The realm thrived from their presence. When they came of age they moved out of the castle to start their own families and that is when the DeNaga’s struck.

Sneaking into the realm with newly acquired cloaking gifts, that they stole from some unique creatures they discovered in another realm. The DeNaga’s started killing off the Elemental’s families. The Elementals made their way to the DeNaga’s determined to kill them all, but somehow it went awry. One was killed by one of the DeNaga’s creatures and two offered their lives in exchange for their families. The last Elemental died fighting.

Now that they had the powers again the DeNaga’s set to lay waste to Elion and this war is known in our history as the Norard—or all encompassing—War. It was an enormous battle that, in the end, nearly decimated the entire world and was only finished when all the other realms banded against the DeNaga’s. The first Griffon Guard was created at this time as five warriors had linked with five griffons. It was thanks to the Griffon Guard that two of the DeNaga’s with the Elemental powers were killed.

The only surviving DeNaga’s, a small, single, family unit, fled the battle and lived out a nomadic life in Vo Arum to avoid detection.

The next three millennia slowly restored the world and all the realms to their former glory and again the Elementals were forgotten to history. Until now.' Elena said confidently.

'Or so I hope.'

We stared at Elena our expressions a mixture of shock and horror.

'Are we meant to be excited about this?' Kassie looked understandably dubious. 'We may have super powers, and if we do a family of nutters is going to hunt us down and suck us dry?' Her voice increased an octave.

Sian stared icily at Elena.

'Well put, Kass.'

The other two gave the Sorceress similar, unimpressed looks.

Elena appeared a little stunned by our not so rapturous response and stared at us in shock before exclaiming, 'No, NO! That is not what’s going to happen at all. There are a couple of different reasons, please let me explain. Do you know how the late King died?'

Loi, Sian and Cat shook their heads but Kassie spoke up.

'Yes. Well, I think I do. Rumal told me it was in a fight, and his first griffon Ofelaan died in it too.'

'Yes, but there is more to it than that. The late Queen Ariadwen, Alek’s mother, died not long after she gave birth to him. We thought at the time that it was an unfortunate complication from the birth, but now I suspect she may have been murdered. So that left just Alek and King Nikias, as the surviving members of the Thalian line. Understandably we watched over them very closely. When Alek turned ten he linked with a griffon, Loushka. At around the same time the other four members of the current Griffon Guard linked with their griffons. And so we, the King, myself, and Yakov, began to train them. It was at our first training camp that we were attacked by Jenviet and her brother Diantew. In the ensuing fight King Nikias and Ofelaan were killed.'

Elena gave a sad sigh, her eyes sorrowful.

'The one good thing out of it all was that Diantew was killed in the fight, which brings me to one of the reasons why I am sure this time we will succeed. Jenviet is the only remaining DeNaga. So our odds are much greater and, unlike the past Elementals, you four are already warriors and used to defending yourselves.'

Warriors.
I wasn’t sure if I’d use that word to describe myself, and the look of astonishment on the others faces was funny.

'Is Alek is the last of the Thalian line?'

'Yes, all our power goes into protecting him. That’s the reason Jenviet and Diantew attacked us then, in the hope of wiping out the Thalian line and thus effectively throwing the realm into Civil War again. I am not able to remain in the Castle if the Thalian line isn’t ruling. They came dangerously close to succeeding in their cause that night.'

I was silent while I thought about it all. It was such an incredible history. What if we were "gifted" as she hoped? How would you cope with such a gift? And Alek watched his dad die when he was only ten that would have broken my heart. Not that it wasn’t at the moment, knowing I’d never see my parents again. I breathed through the pain as my chest seized, again, at the knowledge.

'What will Jenviet do if she succeeds?' Sian asked.

'I expect she would side with a family as my family did and once she had control of this realm she would take over others. The DeNaga’s desire power and dominion above all else. They appear to thrive on it.'

'So a truce isn’t possible?' Loi asked.

Elena gave her a sharp look and there was a long pause before she answered her.

'No. And she would never consider one.'

Loi held her hands back.

'I didn't mean to be rude. I was just curious.'

We sat there, silent, until Sian spoke.

'What do you want from us

The Sorceress looked pleased to get the conversation back on track.

'As I suggested before, a one month trial. We would begin your training in a couple of days and after the ball for Alek’s birthday you could make your decision.'

'Why a couple of days?' asked Kassie.

'I thought two days would give the men some time to show you around the castle and such.' She smiled, 'Once we begin training you will have little time to see much of it.'

'Elena, couldn’t you fight Jenviet?'

I was curious to know what her powers were.

'Yes I could, but that would leave Alek and Elion unprotected. It's too big a risk, and my siblings are too young to help me yet.'

'You have siblings?' Sian asked.

'Yes a brother and sister. They are both studying in other realms. It takes many centuries to come into our full powers you see, unlike the Elementals.'

Many centuries.
How old did that make Elena? Or Jenviet for that matter? Now I began to understand what formidable enemies they must be. We were good fighters after ten years of training. Imagine what someone with centuries of experience must be able to do.

So what to do?

I could see, from looking at them, that the others were thinking the same thing, and we stared at one another, reading expressions. Finally, I gave a tiny shrug. After all if it didn’t work out we could call it off at the month end. The others gave minute nods and I turned to Elena.

'Okay we’ll help. However, we will hold you to your one month agreement if we find it’s not what we want.'

Elena visibly relaxed and a genuine smile lighted her face.

'Thank you all so much. Why don’t you join the men in the Solar. I am sure they’ll be delighted to show off the castle.'

We passed others in the corridors as we followed Elena's directions. Our greetings were always responded to, followed by curious glances and whispers as we went. It seemed most people at the castle had heard of our arrival. I enjoyed the slower pace, compared to the night before, and paused to look at some of the paintings and tapestries on the walls. The need to distract myself was strong, and I was sure the others felt the same. Kassie stopped with me as we stared at a beautiful tapestry of a unicorn silhouette, standing before the setting sun.