The Elf King (14 page)

“
I’m actually from the far
north, above Wichta.”

“
Going to where?” Jendi
followed, folding her legs up into her chest and wrapping her arms
around them snug.

“
South for a while, then
back home.” He found himself staring at Jendi, finding her dimples
and her lopsided smile to be wondrous. She laughed easy, he
thought. She would have made for a good life-mate.

“
Do you tire from all the
traveling?” Ankar asked to the group, hoping Jendi would answer.
But Trolan did instead.

“
We tire from the norm.
Traveling is what keeps us young and alive!”

“
Ankar, we live for the
moment,” Mortan belled, “and we have no regrets!”

The two friends clanked
their ale glasses together in celebration and laughed. Jendi smiled
at Ankar and didn’t look away, her eyes sparkling. “Are you
running, or searching, Ankar?”

Ankar Rie’s smile doubled.
He liked the way she said his name. “I’m traveling to the house of
Andelline to speak with the Queen. There is important business
to—”

Trolan quickly interjected.
“There’s only war to be found! The Elves killed the King and now
there’s war coming. The whole of the land is absurd!”

“
Folly!” Mortan spit. But
neither became upset. Instead they joked and laughed as if they had
not a care in the world.

“
We are leaving for the
same reasons you are going, Ankar. What chance is it that we would
meet here, inbetween the madness?” Jendi’s voice was tainted with
reluctance.

“
I am to prevent the war.
Or at least persuade Queen Sienna to hold off on
attacking.”

Trolan burst into laughter.
“Are you a magician? What trick could you do?”

“
I am a protector.” Ankar’s
statement was firm, wishing them to drop the subject. He turned
from Trolan and Mortan and looked at Jendi. He smiled. “I will do
whatever I can to protect those captured in harm’s way.” He was
delighted to see Jendi smile back.

“
Well, magic or none, you
will never change her mind.” Trolan smiled to Mortan. “We know a
thing or two about it, ya see. We’re not as simple as we
appear.”

Mortan pointed a finger
towards the fire, waving it this way and that, the fire growing and
twirling under Mortan’s direction. “You’d have to be very, very
powerful indeed to stop the Queen. She’s gone mad, I hear.” He
waved his hand flat and the flames went back to flickering. He
smiled to them all in satisfaction.

“
Have you even met the
Queen?” Trolan snorted to Ankar.

“
She’s not one for
negotiations, if you know what I mean!” Mortan added.

Through their laughter,
Ankar smiled in spite of them. He knew how hard it was going to be,
but their thoughts made it more realistic. He turned his face
across the glowing bursts of red and yellow flickers to Jendi. The
smile on her face was gone; her eyes stared almost blankly at the
fire.

“
I’m cold,” she said
softly, to no one in particular, then rose and gathered a tan cloak
from a pack on one of the horses. When she returned, she sat close
to the fire, bundled up. She looked at Ankar. “What if you
fail?”

“
What if I don’t?” Ankar
could sense a shift in her; he could almost taste a sadness
searching for release.

Trolan and Mortan stood,
complained about the conversation, then staggered back into the
tent and dropped onto sleeping rugs. Ankar positioned himself
closer to the fire, closer to Jendi. The two were quiet for a
while, both staring into the flames.

“
When the war breaks out,
whose side will you be on?” Jendi’s voice was almost a
whisper.

Ankar chose his words
carefully. “The war that will come will be of those who favor life,
versus those who seek death. I favor life. I favor it the more I
sit here with you.”

Jendi stared deep into his
eyes. She brought one slender hand forth and gently moved a few
strands of his blonde hair from his cheek, feeling his skin as she
did so. There was so much more to him than anyone she had ever met.
He had a purpose in life and she envied that.

In that moment, Ankar was
wishing to reach out to her, to feel her soft skin, to hold her
close and share things about him that no other knew. He was drawn
to her in that fashion. He couldn’t help himself.

But before he could do
anything, Jendi rose to her feet, removed her tan cloak and handed
it to Ankar. “It is late, Ankar. Sleep by the fire.” She smiled
then added, “Protect us all when the time comes.” Without waiting
for a response, she turned and walked away to sleep next to the
others.

Ankar watched her go,
watched her wrap her red scarf around her neck and tuck herself
under a blanket next to Trolan. He stared at her for a few moments,
thinking of what she had said, and then turned back to the fire. In
the morning he would speak to her again and learn everything about
her, he decided. He would ask her to come with him
perhaps.

When he closed his eyes to
sleep, all he saw was her face. He smiled. Sleep came
instantly.

I
t
was a few hours before dawn when the
screaming started. Ankar Rie stood immediately and opened his eyes
to see black shadows shifting recklessly around. Jendi’s scream
lasted a few more seconds. Ankar frantically rubbed the sleep from
his eyes as he thought he was witnessing was Trolan’s body being
held by the nightmares he had fought in Illken Dor, Mortan as well.
Jendi was nowhere in sight.

Groans belled from Trolan
and Mortan, the snapping of bones followed. With a sick feeling, he
watched as a
Taker
pushed its arms into Trolan’s skin and somehow entered his
body. The sight was sickening. The same thing was happening to
Mortan.

Immediately blue flames lit
Ankar’s fingers and shot into the midst of the demons. Like flaming
razors, blue shards of magic ripped through the darkness, burning
the
Takers
to ash.
Shrieks howled anew. Shadows began shifting around him now,
materializing out of nowhere to stand before and behind him. And
now moving to join the others, were the bodies of Trolan and
Mortan. The faces of their previous owners were only barely
recognizable. Their skin shifted and convulsed as the
Takers
destroyed
everything human inside the shell they now controlled.

“
Jendi!” No answer came
back.

Ankar Rie gasped. His knees
nearly buckled. But his fear gave way to his senses and he summoned
his magic again. This time it spread out in a wide arch, slicing
through the foremost attackers with ease, disintegrating those
closest, rearing back those next, and giving him precious moments
to think. He could feel their presence all around him; he could
feel their foulness, their poison absorbing the air. It was Illken
Dor all over again.

Then he saw a red scarf on
the ground.
No!
Ankar Rie assumed the worst; his heart ached terribly.
“Jendi!”

Ankar Rie threw his magic
everywhere then. His rage was unleashed in a fury of blue streams
sent to devour the madness surrounding him. But even as more
Takers
burned to ash, a
flood of red eyes was washing towards him. And this time Shadox
would not be able to save him.

With an ache in his chest
so deep that he struggled to breathe, Ankar Rie stepped back into
the flames of the campfire and threw down his hands. A cloud of red
embers mixed with yellow flame billowed into the air, swirling in
the grey smoke. Glowing bits of wood splashed into the grass in a
wide circle. The
Takers
engulfed the fringes of the flames,
waiting.

When the smoke and the
ashes settled, Ankar Rie was gone.

From nearly a hundred yards
away, Ankar could hear the terrible shrieks screaming behind him.
They were still looking for him, searching the campsite in a
madness he could only imagine. He kept running, knowing that his
spell of invisibility had worn completely and it was only a matter
of time before the
Takers
would find his trail.

His body ached. Sweat was
running down his face freely. His mouth was gulping at the cool
night air as though he was trying to drown out his heartache.
Jendi’s face kept flashing before him, begging him for protection.
He began crying then, not able to stop himself, as he pictured her
in the moment she screamed out for help.
Protect us all when the time comes
,
her words mocked, echoing relentlessly. But he had failed her,
failed them all, and what they have become because of
it...
No!
He
couldn’t finish the thought. His body was trembling in remorse and
something deeper than regret. He became cold and
shivering.

Then to put his crying to
rest, the loudest wails of terror he had ever heard roared up
behind him.
Takers
found his trail.

Running up a shrub covered
slope, Ankar quickly forgot everything else and looked back. The
campfire was a dancing speckle with bodies darker than the sky
above it running straight towards him. Cruel red eyes beamed in the
dark like torch lights. There were so many, he worried. Quickly he
pumped his leg muscles, pushing himself harder.

Ankar reached the summit of
the small rise and raced down the hill towards a small stretch of
woods. He thought for a second about trying to hide, but knew it
would be a wasted effort. He could somehow divert them, and then
head in the opposite direction, but knew that would only last for
so long and the inevitable would happen. He was going to have to
stand and fight.

His mind began racing for
ideas on how to do so when he reached the edge of the woods and
bolted in. Darting past trees, he kept running, waiting for an idea
to surface. None did. He couldn’t think clearly. Too much had
happened; too many emotions had been triggered to be able to reason
sufficiently. He needed a moment to rest. Just long enough to
figure out a plan of action, long enough to focus. But he knew
there was no amount of time available for him to remove Jendi’s
face from his thoughts.

The woods thinned around
him and he slowed his steps, approaching a large open area. Before
him stretched a pond; its waters dark in the night, its surface
calm. Save for his breathing, the woods was dead quiet. He walked
through the patch of brushy grass that circled the pond, and then
froze.

He could feel it then. It
was here.

Staring around him, he
cursed himself for not feeling its presence. He was a fly in a web,
and he was nervously waiting for the spider to strike. He swallowed
hard, gently turning his head back, feeling the approach of
something from behind, not wishing to trigger the others advance;
not wishing to die before he saw what was hidden beneath the
water.

Slowly his head turned. He
thought for a moment of running away, but something warned him
against it. He would be too slow. And as he looked back and saw the
red eyes of the
Takers
approaching, he knew he could go nowhere.

As blue fire circled his
fingertips in anticipation, he heard the water behind him begin to
move. The
Takers
stood in a row in front of him, twenty or more, with their
hatred warming the air above them. They closed in on him, realizing
that he was trapped, but not knowing why, Ankar thought. Ripples in
the water behind him intensified. Ankar Rie could feel the earth
under him begin to shudder. Something terribly big and powerful was
coming. The ground began to shake. Harder. Stronger. The water
began to bubble and splash.

Ankar Rie ran. With blue
fire bursting out into the sea of
Takers
, he charged recklessly ahead,
burning to ash whatever tried to stop him. He knew he had to act
quickly if he wanted to escape whatever horror was about to emerge
from the depths, and he could feel it coming quickly. Every sense
about him was screaming in warning. His skin rippled in cold
chills, his heart pounded rapidly. Red fire burned towards him in
blazing sheets, but he drew up a shield from his own magic and kept
running into their midst. Clawed fingers swiped at him from every
angle; the forest around him disappeared in a wash of black
cloaks.

Ankar Rie could feel the
presence of the pond’s creature behind him as it suddenly erupted
into the air, the sound that followed was deafening. He saw the
black monsters freeze in place as they realized what was happening.
Their red fire flared upward above Ankar as he ran without slowing,
trying in vain to destroy whatever it was coming to claim them.
Ankar destroyed a few
Takers
then raced through the falling ash just as the
creature landed on those he did not kill, with enough jarring force
to split the ground under him, forcing him to jump to safety. He
landed on a stump and fell, quickly scrambling to his feet. Looking
back, he saw was a monstrous head, grotesque, covered in scales and
sores, with a lidless eye and flailing tentacles, sinking back
under water.