The Elf King (65 page)

Chapter 36

“
K
amen, he’s gone!” Kandish
yelled, feeling a pit in her stomach swirl. It was a few hours yet
before dawn, when she awoke to find that Qenn was missing. It was
the
LifeWaters
all over again. But this time, Qenn would not be so
fortunate. This time, he would not win. She had tracked him back to
the
Taker’s
trail, watching his steps turn north, before she realized
what he had done. Now she was running back to wake Kamen Ode with
all her alarms ringing.

“
Why would he do that?”
Kamen spit angrily. He stood in the dark, looking at the worried
face staring up at him.

“
He’s gone on alone.”
Kandish was already moving north, following Qenn’s tracks. “He
thinks he can save us that way. He thinks that he can do all this
without help.”

Kamen spit again. His body
coiled in anger. “Fool! He’s going to get himself
killed!”

“
Judging by his tracks,
he’s more than an hour ahead,” said Kandish quickly. “We have to
hurry.”

Kandish picked up her pace,
listening to Kamen grunt something unpleasant about how he should
have heard Qenn leave, that he should have read the signs. But
Kandish knew better than he, and still she failed to see them. It
was the magic, she insisted. He was losing himself. She tried to
tell herself that it was still early yet and there would be time to
find him and undo the ties, the strangling lines of persuasion the
staff was caressing him with. But she could not be certain.
Everyone was different. With Qenn having such little experience,
the magic could take him easily.

As they reached the trail,
all she could do was hope that she was wrong.

Q
enn had walked for more than a mile, his tears dry against
his pale skin, his pounding heart settling to a normal pace, as the
sky brightened far off to his right in a blend of colors that all
may have been black or grey as far as he could notice. His eyes
stung from crying, from the ache that he felt for leaving them
behind. But the staff was there to offer comfort. He cradled it
between both his arms, snug to his chest, with the tip resting
above his left shoulder. He clung to it for warmth, he thought. But
the waves of heat he was feeling from the staff were doing more
than just heating his skin, and the decision to keep it pressed
against him was not entirely his. He was hungry, he was tired. But
soon all of that would be lost beneath the presence of the
staff.

“
You’ll be fine,” he
whispered, thinking of Kandish. She would come after him, of
course. But by then, it would all be over, and she would be safe.
They would not have to worry about magic again.

He smiled then, thinking
of her face. He could see her eyes sparkling as though nothing was
wrong. He could see her smile broaden as though she was about to
laugh happily. He imagined running his fingers through her silver
hair, her face shimmering like water...
Wait. What am I doing?
Qenn stopped
his line of thought, shaking off his trance as though it were water
on his coat. It was the
LifeWaters
face he found replacing hers. It was the magic
held within the staff he carried, he realized. It was working its
way into him. Qenn grew scared at how easily its image came to him,
how easily it overtook his thoughts. He focused again, harder his
time, remembering her face as it is. He missed her immensely. Her
scent, her voice, were just whiffs in the swirling wind that he
could only catch patches of at a time.

Kandish would be tracking
him by now, he thought. She would be mad at his decision, but the
end result was worth it. She would forgive him. He moved at a
faster pace, hoping to push enough time between them for him to
destroy the
Mrenx Ku
long before Kandish arrived. And she would be moving fast, he
knew. She had thought that it was her magic that was going to save
him, that he was somehow her responsibility. But she didn’t figure
on free will interfering with the Seer’s vision. He suddenly
thought that he knew how Kamen Ode had felt when he left Skadar
Port with the thought of doing so would eventually save his mother.
How crushed he must have been, Qenn thought sadly. But this was
different. He was in control. The staff would not fail him. Kandish
would be saved.

His smile lessened then, as
he had to push aside his feelings and harden his heart. Doing
otherwise would let in his common sense and his willful reasoning,
showing him how wrong his decision had been. He focused instead on
the talisman in his hands. The staff throbbed in a glowing white
pulse. Qenn saw it right away, staring at it in fear that the magic
would be unleashed upon him. So he tried something. He began to
concentrate on the staff, talking to it, caressing it with words,
telling it to listen to him, to retreat back into the staff. His
thumbs rubbed along the wood, pressing firmly as if the action
itself was forcing the magic back. For several long minutes he did
this without any change from the staff. Qenn grew frustrated. As he
was about to give up, he changed his tone, demanding that the magic
listen to him. To his surprise, it worked. The light faded. The
pulsating decreased. So he continued with being aggressive, using
more of his thoughts instead of his words to do his bidding.
Focused on the staff holding tight to what was bound in to it, Qenn
began to smile inwardly. In seconds, it settled down and faded
slowly until it was gone. For now, he thought, the magic belonged
to him.

“
It’s going to be okay,
Kandish.” With a smile, Qenn began to jog north across the beaten
path.

For hours he sped across
the land, the feeling of having the staff for protection drove him
without pause. The landscape turned hilly, with the murky
swamp-waters losing more of their putrid water, becoming more slime
covered muck. Trees were either dying in rot, or fallen and covered
in black moss. Bushes were sparse, with only needles present for
foliage. Hillsides were barren with brown dirt, and boulders
protruding skyward in jagged splits that looked teeth-like. Birds
had not been seen all day, and the small creatures found on the
previous day skittering across the waters had been absent as well.
Everything seemed plagued. Everything was dying.

Qenn knew the end of the
line was coming. The landscape was becoming more desolate the
closer he came to the
Mrenx
Ku
. It was a poison, he understood. Not
only for the Elves, but for the land. Its sickness would devour all
of the lands if he did not stop it. Feeling the warmth of the staff
in his hands, he knew the magic would set things right.

-Use me-

Qenn slowed immediately. He
had heard the words loud and clear. The voice was deep and
familiar. But no one was around.

-Let me free-

It spoke again and this
time Qenn nearly dropped the staff as he flinched at its sound,
realizing that it was coming from the staff.

Qenn stood still, holding
the staff out in front of him, arms stretched to their fullest,
eyes wide with curiosity and disbelief. Unsure what to do, he
simply replied, “No. I don’t need you yet.”

-Use me now-

“
No.”

-Yes-

Qenn grew concerned. The
staff began to pulsate quickly. “No!”

He ran then, speeding
forward as if his act alone would be enough to force away the power
persuading him. He needed a distraction, he thought. He needed
something else to occupy his thoughts. Then the power would not be
heard. And if he could not hear it, then there would be no
confrontation. So he ran. He focused on pushing his feet faster,
stretching his legs longer and pretending something was chasing
him. After a mile he realized that the voice had died. The staff
was returned to normalcy. A mile later he slowed and began walking
again. He thought about it for a second, trying not to focus too
hard on it, not wishing to give it life again. It’s what Kandish
had warned, he thought. Magic could gain control over the user if
not carefully held in check. He was not sure how, but he knew now
that he had to be more cautious with his thoughts. Pressing on with
the sun beating down, Qenn began to think of anything
else.

The sun swept slowly across
the sky and was sinking behind mountains far to the west, as Qenn
moved his legs non-stop over the trail. An hour after the sun set,
the sky was lit by the last phase of the moon’s cycle. Qenn found
himself staring behind him to his right to see it, noticing that
the trail was turning northwest again. The sky overhead reminded
him of nights spent in Meadow with Tane as they lay on their backs
and stared at the canopy of lights. Some of the lights held life,
they thought. Some were lights still shining from stars that had
already burned out, Tane had told him. The view reminded him that
he was not so alone. Somewhere under the same sky, his brother was
looking up and missing him as well. Qenn took one last look at the
serenity, then turned his attention to the dismal landscape and the
blackened ground beneath his feet. He was anxious to be done with
it all.

It was nearing the
midnight hour, with the moon shedding shadows across the black,
dying objects that the staff began to pulsate a white glow again.
Qenn could feel it pressing against his skin. Each time it grew
brighter, stronger. He tried to force it back, to think of it
responding to his will, but nothing worked. It was too strong. He
stopped walking then, staring at the staff intensely, expecting
that somehow the
LifeWaters
magic would finally escape and something terrible
would come from it
. It’s alive, mortal. It
will find a way to leave your staff,
the
LifeWaters
words whispered back to him coldly. It was too much power to
be held within the staff, it had warned him. And this time, he
thought he was going to find out just how right the Faerie creature
was.

Then Qenn heard something
moving. Instinctively, he pressed the staff close to his chest, as
if to hide it. And then he saw it. Standing about twenty yards
straight ahead, it waited. Qenn stopped breathing. He had never
seen anything so vicious before. He compared it to night beast-a
wild dog-like animal that he knew roamed the woods around the Lower
Krune-but it wasn’t exactly. And yet, somehow it was. It was tall,
several feet taller than himself, appearing as if its body had
somehow been stretched unnaturally leaving the chest and waist
narrow and spiny. It stood on two heavily muscled hind legs
attached to short paws with long claws. Its front legs were long
and bent, ending with hooked claws. Patches of hair were missing
all over its body, and across its gaunt head there was nothing but
blotches in the skin, some bleeding and open.

Qenn knew the only way he
was going to survive is if he used the staff. The beast would
surely tear him to shreds in seconds otherwise. He could hear it
breathing, a deep whine that sounded more like a quiet laugh of
anticipation. Suddenly its muzzle split wide revealing rows of
jagged teeth inside waiting to rip into his flesh. Its tongue came
out to frantically lick the air, just before its muzzle began
snapping as if it were chewing Qenn’s scent. Cruel yellow eyes
stared back at Qenn, waiting.

And then it came for him.
Howling viciously, its bulky legs slammed into the ground as it
raced for Qenn, tearing across the ground with its sharp claws
shredding the dirt underneath. It was not graceful by any means,
appearing as if it did not have full control of its own movements,
working hard to balance itself through its quick pace. Qenn
panicked. He suddenly wished that he had not left the group, that
Kandish was with him, using her magic to destroy the beast before
it even came close to him-just wishing she was standing beside him
now holding his hand.

“
No!” he
screamed.

Then he became mad. The
thought of Kandish being harmed had stirred up feelings that had
connected with the power in the staff. He could feel something
moving within the wood. He wanted it out. He wanted it to flood
across the beast and rip it to shreds. He could feel the energy
inside the staff begin to surge and he did not care anymore what it
did.

Qenn screamed anew, fierce
and demanding, full of rage and anger, deep with purpose and
defiance, watching the beast leap for him, watching the evil behind
the yellow eyes fixed on him. Claws swiped the air towards his
throat, jaws snapped wildly.

Qenn staggered back,
thrusting the staff forward to the chest of the beast.

And then it
flared.

White light consumed all of
what he could see, flooding out of the staff finally. Qenn no
longer saw the beast, no longer felt the sense of immediate action,
no longer could feel the evil pressing down on him. All he saw was
the white flare; the staff ignited before him. Everything was
quiet.

Then Qenn felt a sense of
urgency, realizing what was happening. The
LifeWaters’
power was escaping. But
as he had wished to use only enough required to destroy the beast,
his Elven senses were warning him that he was losing it all.
No!
he cried, trying to
reign the magic, trying to save all that he could. Desperately he
began to choke down on the staff, using all of his thoughts, all of
his mind control to do so. Beads of sweat formed along his
forehead, his jaw clenched tight together, his knuckles white, his
eyes nearly shut. Slowly Qenn pushed back the power, forcing it
back into its cage. The blinding light dissipated slowly as if the
staff was a sponge and it was absorbing the light. In a matter of
moments, it withdrew completely.