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Authors: Gary Alan Wassner

Tags: #Fiction, #Fantasy, #epic

The Revenge of the Elves (7 page)

BOOK: The Revenge of the Elves
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“Can we help in any way?” Esta asked. It was a question she had asked her husband more than once, even though she knew the relationship he had with his Lalas was a part of his life he could not share.

“You help by being here,” Tomas replied. He sounded frail but his eyes glowed like emeralds against the backdrop of stone.

Withdrawing the silver ring from his shirt, he slipped the rawhide thong over his neck. Holding it in his palm, he closed his fingers around it and began to hum.

The room spun out of control. Tomas lurched. Something pulled at him and he gripped the arms of the chair and pressed his back against the tufted fabric. His eyes were shut but he could see more than if they were wide open. Up, up he went.

Flying! I’m flying
. He gasped.

Darting above the treetops at fantastic velocity, he searched for something he could not intuit, something he could not picture, could not cognitively identify. The ring pulled him along.

City. Buildings. Down there! Familiar. So familiar.

It loomed far in front of him and he passed over it in an instant. A white spot appeared in the distance.

Light!
He felt as if he should squint but his eyes were clenched shut.
Too bright. Hurts.

Something glowed on the horizon. It looked like a huge sphere of intense white energy hovering upon the ground. He drew nearer, hurtling toward it, careening through the sky. His whole body burned, full of power. Light burst from his fingers.

Aaagghhh.
His breath went out from him and his head throbbed.
The ring. Came from the ring.

The beam touched the glowing dome, and he felt a connection no different than if his own hand reached out and touched something. The sensations were tactile, real.

Yes, the ring! Glowing. Hot. Blistering.
It pulsed in his hand, alive. The dome shattered and brilliant crystals shot out in all directions raining down on everything. A figure appeared within the storm.

Pithar, Chosen of Marathar. Come to me.
The glow surrounded him, wrapped him in a shimmering cocoon. Tendrils of power tugged at him, lifted him, and together they sailed across the sky that was not a sky.

Not alone anymore.

Tomas clutched the ring as if it were an extension of him. He felt huge, bigger than life. Pithar sailed beside him. Together they descended upon a cowled man standing alone in the middle of a shaded glen. Dashiel, Nemaroe’s bondmate, slowly raised his head.

Power. Again.
The air flew from his lungs, deflating him like a burst balloon.
Dashiel!

The brightness struck him and he acknowledged the contact, rising to join with them. The three sought out the next and the next and the next.

Looking upward even before they descended upon her, Blodwyn’s spirit rose to meet the gathering group, sailing up the beam of light. Crea and then Phero, Harton, Liam, Connor, Edmond and finally Tobias joined them, one at a time.

Come
, he called out to them.
Come to the gathering of the Chosen.

Together, though their physical beings remained behind, they arrived at the protected chamber in the castle at Avalain.

The ring glowed in Tomas’ clenched palm, while Esta and Elion sat beside him and watched. An odd luminescence permeated the dimmed chamber, and they both saw the ephemeral figures of the Chosen moving to and fro around them, figures with no substance, specters, spirits. Faint murmurs echoed throughout the room, but they could not make out the words. It seemed no more than a ghost dance to them.

Tomas sat perfectly still, as if asleep. The sparkling beam from the silver band escaped through the spaces between his fingers, dancing and skipping prismatically across the polished stone surfaces of the room.

“Why are others in the room with us?” Pithar grimaced. It surprised and offended him to find them there. Esta and Elion’s silhouettes glowed iridescent behind him.

“They are my friends,” Tomas replied. “I wouldn’t have found this place if not for them. They’re as trustworthy as any other in this chamber.”

“Trustworthy? It’s unwise to involve people outside of the council,” Pithar retorted.

“Let the boy do as he chooses, Pithar,” Dashiel said, his green eyes flashing. “He is the holder of the ring. It is his prerogative.”

“Pithar has a point nevertheless,” Harton, the most diminutive of the group, acknowledged. “I am not comfortable with any of this either. The more people who know about it, the harder it will be to keep it confidential. Confidence is essential, is it not?”

Tobias turned. A purple sash bound his patchwork robe. “He said they can be trusted. One is Queen Esta of Avalain and the other is Elion, Prince of Lormarion. Have you objections to them really?” he asked.

“I suppose not,” Harton acquiesced, though he seemed unconvinced.

“It was imprudent regardless,” Pithar insisted. “You take liberties with us, young man. He may accept it, I do not.” Pithar walked away from the group. His face was long and time-worn. Gray robes hung loosely from him, concealing his body.

“Imprudent?” Crea asked.

“Yes, and arrogant!” Pithar continued, refusing to look at them.

“You’re in a foul mood,” Edmond said. “Are you feeling alright? Is Marathar well?” Edmond and Pithar had been friends once, before the bond. They grew up in the same town.

“He is indeed well, thank you!” Pithar strutted to the edge of the illuminated area until the shadows consumed him.

“Enough bickering!” Blodwyn interjected with a stamp of her walking stick. “We’re together less than five minutes and you are arguing. I lose my patience so easily with you, Pithar. Focus upon the important issues. By the First, I do not know how Marathar deals with you sometimes.”

“Unlike some of the others here…” Pithar replied, pointing at his companions, “I have yet to be rejected by my tree.”

A hush fell upon the room. Dashiel’s face flushed crimson. He raised his fist in the air and strode toward Pithar.

“You insist upon creating controversy, don’t you?” Edmond asked, stepping up and placing his arm across Dashiel’s chest to keep him back. “This is neither the time nor the place for a bitter declaration like that, Pithar. Control yourself. Carlisle and Mintar are dead! Words of sympathy and fond remembrance should have been the first ones spoken by us today. These are difficult times. Must we reflect that too?”

Dashiel huffed and dropped his arm. “It’s a sad statement indeed that we have come together during a time of turmoil and strife, and we mirror that energy here amongst ourselves as well. Are we not supposed to be the ones who maintain the balance? What do you seek to gain by dividing us?” Dashiel asked.

“The balance has been disrupted and not by Pithar. It’s not unusual that such an interruption would manifest itself in our behavior too. Let’s not fool ourselves,” Harton replied.

“Everyone of us feels it,” Blodwyn said. Her brown skin glowed golden in the diffused light. “The connections are weakening and we cannot help but feel it. All the more reason to be aware and control ourselves. Such behavior does not suit the Chosen.”

“The flow of energy common to each of us, common to life itself, is being undermined. First the Gem’s power ebbed and as the trees die, the communication between those that remain is breaking down further. He is manipulating this. We know it and we mustn’t fall prey to it,” Liam said.

“He’s desperate,” Tomas spoke up. “He was unable to gather the 11th shard. It’s loose upon the land and I don’t know if it’s safe.”

Pithar scowled at him as if he had no right to voice his opinion. “You are not sure about the shard? How could you not be sure of something as important as this?”

“I’m not,” Tomas repeated. Pithar’s attitude didn’t deter him. “Sidra asked me to tell you this. She’s been protecting my brother and me.”

Pithar turned to face them again, his robes flying out from behind him. “Ah. Sidra, the renegade. How gracious of her,” he snarled.

“You are a Chosen, Tomas. Your loyalty must first be to us!” Harton said. Pithar was his mentor and he rose to his defense. “What have you told her?”

“My loyalty is to the earth!” Tomas replied. He stood up tall with his hands on his hips. Though a boy among men, he made his presence felt. “Is that not how it should be for each of us?”

“Don’t lecture him, Harton,” Edmond said. “He is one of us.”

“I do not trust her and I never have. We all know of her power, and I, for one, have no reason to believe that her purposes and ours are the same,” Harton replied. He hardly trusted anyone anymore, let alone Sidra.

“Then you don’t know her,” Tomas reddened. He didn’t come here to battle with the Chosen. The tenor of this meeting was unexpected and disconcerting.

“She has never been our friend, Tomas. You must understand the history. She rejected the bond, what else should we assume?” Edmond asked in a conciliatory manner. “What reasons could she have had to do that?”

“We know so few things about her. Judge her not because we cannot fathom her motives. We need what allies we can find at this time,” Crea reminded them.

“How do we know she is an ally?” Connor spoke up for the first time. He was a man of few words, and he never wasted them. “Why will she not converse with us?”

“We do not know that she is an enemy either. Lilandre believes she strives with us, though perhaps not at our side,” Blodwyn said. “Without her efforts, the shard would probably be in Colton’s pocket now.”

“Yes. Wayfair agrees too, though he seems to understand her no better than we do,” Crea added.

“My brother was in need and she gave him sanctuary. She stopped us from doing something that could have hurt everyone badly. I trust her because of that,” Tomas said.

“What did she prevent you from doing?” Dashiel asked. Unlike some of his colleagues, he was intrigued by this woman.

“The ring speaks to me, though in a language I can’t always understand, I try to make sense of the impulses and I believed it wanted my brother and me to communicate, that it was trying to tell me. She stopped us from meeting, and I’m now convinced she was right in doing so.”

“She intervened? How?” Tobias asked. Sidra hadn’t involved herself in such affairs in the past. She remained apart until recently. Her actions were important news.

“Prince Elion and I went to what we thought was a safe place so I could contact him. She came to us,” Tomas said.

“Why should you not converse at this point? Because she told you not to?” Harton asked. “You each carry one of the rings. You are brothers, allies. What danger could such an encounter pose?” His suspicions were heightened, not relieved by Tomas’ comments.

“She recited a passage from the Tomes that speaks of the Gem burning brightly when Davmiran and I meet. She feared it might reveal itself to Colton.”

“I know the poem to which you are referring,” Edmond said. “Each of us has studied it. The Chosen shall die, all but a few…,” he recited.

“So she claims to be your protectress?” Dashiel asked. “Yours and your brother’s?”

“She does not claim to be. It just seems that she is. Her actions speak for themselves,” Tomas said. “Can you not feel the shield around Avalain?”

They were fully aware of Sidra’s efforts. They had been since the moment the shields descended. The manifestation of such power could not go unnoticed by any Chosen.

“Sidra asked that I warn you again to make sure the trees never know of our meetings. She said to trust no one outside of this group. She said deception and treachery is everywhere, though she wasn’t specific. I know Prince Elion and Queen Esta are to be considered a part of us. I was with Elion when she came to me, and she and Esta know one another well. Sidra was the one who told me about this room.”


She
warns
us
?” Pithar paced in a tight circle. “She has the audacity to tell us to lie to our trees!” His agitation was unusual and he fidgeted with his hands.

“She feared betrayal and treason more than anything, and that’s what she wanted me to tell you. The worries some of us have about our trees may be borne of this,” Tomas continued, ignoring Pithar’s comments. “She’s sincere, I know it. She’s trying to help, despite her anger.”

“How can you be positive? How do we know she’s not planting the seeds of this so called conspiracy herself?” Harton asked.

“Exactly! Maybe she is the one seeking to separate us from our bondmates for purposes we are unaware of,” Pithar said. “You’re all so trusting, it sickens me sometimes. Fools we are not, or shouldn’t be,” he challenged them again.

“Tomas tells us she is trustworthy. Do you doubt the word of another Chosen?” Tobias asked, his patience wearing thin.

“He may be young, but so were we all once,” Crea said. He sensed the power in the boy. It radiated around him. He was no ordinary Chosen.

“It’s not a matter of trust. This is not personal. It’s his judgment I question,” Pithar replied, wagging his finger at Tomas like an angry schoolmarm.

“You go from bad to worse, Pithar. What is your basis for such a comment? His age? How foolish,” Edmond scoffed. The boy was strong and sincere. He could feel it.

“This is getting us nowhere,” Blodwyn declared. “We have decided to meet surreptitiously, despite the risks, because we determined at our last gathering it was prudent to do so. Tomas summoned us to warn us, not to be barraged with questions and doubts. Treat him as you would any of us. Why do you deem it appropriate to confront him with issues and questions you wouldn’t pose to me or to one of the others here?” It disturbed her that they were bickering. This was not their way. This was never their way.

Pithar stretched out his arms, his palms up. “I am uncomfortable with this discussion. Everything we are saying angers me. I do not wish to be here and I did not wish to be there in such a clandestine way the last time. What should I say? I cannot lie to you,” Pithar confessed, his distress obvious.

“None of us enjoy these gatherings Pithar. Enjoyment is not the motive,” Edmond reddened again as he spoke. “But under the circumstances, they must take place. Perhaps if we had met like this during more stable times, it wouldn’t be so difficult now. You were opposed then too, if I recall. But, there is a need for us to gather and to share like never before. Tomas is not to blame for your feelings, Pithar.”

BOOK: The Revenge of the Elves
4.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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