The Elf King (32 page)

Tane felt his heart ache.
He forced himself to remember to breathe. As Shadox began to ride
away, he took another look back for Mantel Orris. The woods were
dark and empty. He whispered, “Thank you.”

With that, he mounted his
horse and hurried to catch Shadox.

Chapter 18

L
ord Terill Estrial left the Shade of the Lyyn at sunset and
headed back to his home with his head low and his spirit even
more-so. The guilt that he was feeling for tricking Breedoria into
carrying the crystal was a heavy load to bear. He reasoned his
actions to lift the load, but the consequences were threatening to
swallow him whole. She was his only daughter. He had lost her once
before when she turned Dark. Now he will lose her completely. The
spirit will try to consume the magic of the crystal, and in doing
so would release its power unto the user. It was devised in the
same fashion as the
Mrenx
Ku
. It is a power like a sponge; it draws
from its user, absorbing all that it can, leaving the host clinging
to life. Then only the strong would survive.

It was necessary, he told
himself. She was already lost.

“
It is done, then?” A
soothing voice spoke to him softly as he walked the pathway to his
home. “Did she seem herself? Tell me, Terill. Tell me how she
looked.”

Terill lifted his head to
see his wife, Oskalins, standing with a face as sad as his own. She
was on the verge of crying. He embraced her tightly. “Remember her
as she was when we knew her.”

A tear rolled down
Oskalins’ cheek. She struggled to maintain her poise. “Did we do
the right thing, Terill? Tell me this was.”

Terill took a deep breath,
and then sighed. “We’ve given her a chance for redemption and only
time will tell now if our decision was right.”

“
She was...so young once.
So full of light.”

“
But no longer. This will
be her salvation.”

She nodded in return. They
stood nearly eye to eye. Oskalins’ skin was lighter than and just
as shiny as Terill’s hair, with a set of silver eyes gleaming with
hope. She wore a floor length gown decorated with lace in floral
patterns and wild colors. A ruby necklace matched a set of
bracelets on both wrists.

“
The crystal will not turn
on her. She will be safe. She will save her love. In turn, she will
play a role in saving us all. Before the end, she will see it so.”
Oskalins reaffirmed this to herself mostly, gathering her composure
and accepting what they had planned.

“
I wish I could be there at
that moment when the poison is gone and she is my daughter again,
Terill.”

Terill smiled sadly. In
truth, he did not believe that Breedoria was going to return. He
saw the poison in her; it had such a strong hold. “Time will
tell.”

Oskalins saw the doubt in
his eyes, as much as he tried to hide it. “I will see my daughter
whole again, Terill.”

Terill nodded. There was no
need to continue the conversation. “There is more we need to do,”
Terill added softly.

“
Walk me in,” Oskalins
whispered. “I want time to mourn my child.”

Terill held her hand and
walked with her into their house. She rested against him for
support most of the way, crying silently to herself, he knew. It
was an ache that would never leave, and he was tired of seeing her
this way. The war needed to come quickly, he thought. If nothing
more than to occupy their minds of something else.

The sky was turning a red
and yellow mixture as the sun set beyond the treetops westward and
nightfall was looming from the east. Terill held Oskalins close,
saying nothing at all through their halls and rooms, until she was
tucked under blankets on their bed. A single lantern held a small
flame on the table next to the bed. Terill stared at her stricken
face; her eyes were on the verge of a very long cry. Terill kissed
her forehead softly, squeezing her hand tight before letting go
completely.

“
I miss her so...” Oskalins
whimpered softly, unable to complete her feelings aloud.

“
As do I. Find peace now in
this quiet time.”

Oskalins wanted to be
alone. “Dornawee has something to show you. Go. Do what others
cannot.”

Terill swept his long hand
down the side of her wet cheeks. “I love you.”

He saw her nod,
understanding that she was waiting for him to leave before she
would release her emotions. So he left. He blew out the light next
to her and closed the door behind him. As he walked down the hall,
he heard her begin to mourn. He focused on putting one foot ahead
of the other, pushing aside his natural instincts to run back to
her. He held his own tears in check and focused on doing what was
needed.

“
What have you found,
Dornawee?” he whispered to himself.

He walked out of his home
to the trail leading down into the woods where a cropping of homes
clustered together. He entered one of them, leading down into a
cellar where a door stood locked from within. He knocked three
times, then once more. A heavy bar was heard moving from the other
side, followed by the door swinging open. A well lit room was
beyond, with several elves standing around a table full of various
items. Terill entered at once, and just as quick, the door was shut
and locked behind him.

Terill walked over to the
men standing at the table. One elf smiled broadly, leaving the
others to greet Terill. He was elderly, skinny and tall, face all
tips and angles. His aged hands clasp Terill’s.

“
My Lord,” Dornawee
announced, “it is good for you to be here tonight.”

“
What news have you,
Dorn?”

The old elf spoke
excitedly. “I am on to something you should know about. I would not
have sent word otherwise.”

“
I know. Have you created a
weapon?”

“
Not exactly.”

“
Speak freely, Dorn. It is
late.” Terill forced his smile to remain.

“
Okay,
let me tell you from the beginning. I know you said a cure to the
Dark Elves doing would be found at the
LifeWaters
. I did some research. It
took me the better part of two days to find something. But I did. I
did find something.”

Terill was pleased, and
tried not to let his impatience show. “What did you find,
Dornawee?”

“
Information.”

Dornawee smiled from ear
to ear. He could barely contain himself. He began rambling on
again, once he noticed the other was waiting for a better reply.
“Oh, yes. Yes, yes. The information written in the old scribes I
found was almost bleak, but there was a note about the Faerie
creature living there. From the world of Faerie it is. I could not
tell you how powerful this thing is, but I tell you that it’s
there, in the
LifeWaters
.”

“
This is
not news, old friend. I need to know what kind of power is there. I
need a way to harness the power. I need to know how it will affect
the
Mrenx Ku
.”

Terill’s smile was gone
now, his eyes were hard and intense. “Men will attack shortly. The
demons advance past the Spira as we speak. We need weapons for all.
We need to ensure that we will survive!”

Dornawee’s smile endured
the scolding. “Yes, yes. Allow me to finish, my Lord. Crystals and
potions are for men and demons. But if the source is not defeated,
then there is no hope, no bother for anything else. That is why
I’ve focused on finding the information necessary to better our
chances.”

The old elf nodded,
approving his own doings. “The dialect was broken and a bit unclear
to me, being written so long ago, half of it in another language
all together! Once the Faerie creature’s presence was known, I did
some more digging. It was mentioned in a few other books, with
little or no information on it at all. However, I did decipher a
few key words that appeared in each text.
Forever
, and,
purity
, were mentioned
repeatedly.”

Terill nodded. “Faerie
creatures can live a great deal longer than you can
imagine.”

“
Yes,
yes. But I believe the power living in the
LifeWaters
has the
potency to purify something, allowing that to hold true
forever.”

It was quiet for a few
minutes then, as Terill Estrial thought things over. “Then it can
be done. The
Mrenx Ku
can be defeated.”

“
Yes!”
Dornawee’s eyes glistened in delight. “And there is someone en
route now to the
LifeWaters
?”

“
There are.” Terill nodded.
“They travel up the Spira now. We have two days.”

Dornawee frowned. The other
elves around him groaned. The old elf shook his head. “That is not
enough time. It would take days to—”

“
Two of them, Dorn. Two.”
Terill smiled faintly, nodding to each of them, and then walked out
of the room.

Dornawee sighed out loud.
“We need to create a talisman, soon.”

He turned back to the
ingredients on the table, the rest of the men turning back to their
tasks of mixing and matching, creating formulas for what they
sought. Minutes turned into hours, and the sun was rising before
they had anything valid. They were tired from working, exhausted
mentally from trying to figure out a potion strong enough to handle
the magic of the
LifeWaters
. The task was theirs,
given them by Lord Estrial himself only a few short days earlier.
He told them all he knew of the upcoming events, he kept nothing to
himself, knowing the more his men knew and understood, the better
they would be able to serve their purpose. And their purpose was to
create magic again.

The men working in secret
were hungry and tired, yet they worked non-stop. All through the
day they tested and tried what they hoped would be the answer,
failing each time. Out of frustration, one of them, an elf named
Leis, stopped working and left. Dornawee tried to convince him to
stay and work through it, but his plea fell on deaf ears. It was
late at night when Leis walked out, muttering to the rest of them
how they would never be able to succeed without more
help.

A few hours later, Leis
returned. Not alone. A smaller elf stood next to him, dressed in a
black hooded cloak. His face was masked in shadow, and what little
did appear, did not look healthy.

“
You can’t bring him here!”
Dornawee shouted vehemently. The others agreed.

“
He can help!” Leis
defended. “He’s the only one who can!”

“
Dark Elves are forbidden!
How did you even find him? If Estrial—”

“
He wants to help! Listen
to him, for our sakes!”

The Dark Elf stepped
forward. The others stepped back instinctively. No one said a word
for a moment. The elves were uncomfortable in the presence of the
banished, and it showed. When the Dark Elf spoke, his voice was
raspy and breaking, as though he desperately needed water. None was
offered.

“
Old Elves have no magic.
Only the Dark Ones.”

“
Get out of here!” Dornawee
replied at once. “You’re banished!”

“
Hush, old one.” The Dark
Elf raised one hand and pointed a very slender finger towards
Dornawee, silencing him. “I’ve not agreed to come here only to
listen to your cowardly words. You know nothing of us. You barely
know your own kind.”

“
He’s here to help,” Leis
said in a low tone, listening to Dornawee struggling to speak.
“Hear him out.”

The Dark Elf turned to
each of them then. None of them spoke, none of them moved. “We
share a common goal, you and us. The
Mrenx
Ku
threatens us as well. Believe it or
not, we’ve been working on a magic to stop it. But because of our
own lust for power, we’ll never be able to finish the task. Our
lust would have us consume one another instead.” He paused briefly,
looking down. “It’s not something that I am proud of.”