The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (44 page)

She looked to Rosana, the queens’ eyes were drifting off, her feasting looked as though a short nap was about to interrupt. Kaya took a wet cl
oth, wiped her face, and then be
gan to pat up the blood on her bed. Baskets of food were laid to the side, and Lady T’Vellon removed the loaf from her hands, though it did not come easily, even in her sleep. Rosana’s eyes did the slow attempt to open here and there, but finally rested shut for much needed dreams and peace.

“You did well, Lady Kaya T’vellon. Your presence likely does as much as our prayers do, thank you.” Garret spoke softly, not wanting to disturb Rosana, nor witness the feasting again should she wake.

“I did nothing, father. I was helped in my most desperate moments, when all was lost. I simply need to do the same for her.” Kaya smiled and ran her fingers through Rosana’s hair as she slept.

“Not typical of an assassin.” Garret smiled back.

“No, I guess it’s not. Perhaps I will leave that behind, just like my homeland.”

“I could take your confession, whenever you wish.”

“
I am not ready for that, besides, we have no time nor privacy.”

“I have this afternoon.” Garret prodded.

“You will need all this next
month
for me, father.”

Garret felt his smile fade and his eyes widen a bit. He had heard who she worked for in the past, assumed much of what she may have been accomplice to, but her assumption of how much confession she would need startled him out of words.

“I am here, and that will have to do for now.” Kaya reassured his grim expression. “And I serve whatever purpose that you all do, so bless me as one of you.”

“That is a start, a glimmer from the darkness, and I know you are here for a purpose
beyond me. Alden be praised,
we will talk more at another time.” He smiled again.

Kaya thought of her long lost home in Southwind, wondering if her brother would be proud were he to know of her actions. She too
k out her
black mask, and handed it to Garret. “Here, now we have a beginning.”

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Vanessa Blackflame eyed Alvander field from her floating position off the hill. Elcram looked dark, nearly empty at sunset, barely a flicker of light between the outskirts and Southwind Keep. As she had suspected, Alexei T’Vellon took all his forces to the east
, for the stables were nearly empty as well
. As she had planned,
Southwind Keep would be no more. Signed agreement or no,
she had her orders from the patriarch. The Caberran girl, trained in secret as Sapphire of the East, an esteemed student of the arcane as well, could sense nothing
of danger ahead. Not that she cared with the forces behind her and
her consort,
Eliah Shendrynn.

“This should be quick and easy. As per our agreement with the late wretch, Salah Cam, you may invade Roricdale an
d Thoranack, they are yours as well
, King Avegarne.” Vanessa looked to the half faced rotted
ogre
ruler of the Western Wastes. He had brought nearly one thousand ogre, by her rough count, a force unheard of in Chazzrynn since the battle of Arouland.

“I will
believe it when I see it, human
. In my experience, Southwind will not fall so easily.
I hope you are more capable than the old corpse that now rests in the black chasm.
” Avegarne stewed still over losing his oldest son, Sajogarne
,
to the last battle
here
under Salah Cam
’s command
.

He insults you, how amusing
, how dare you work with ogre in my body…

“There is no one here that I can see, brave Avegarne, perhaps you are afraid of the dark?” Eliah Shendrynn tossed the comment casually. It was Salah Cam in control from the inside, his dark spirit had maintained control over the body of Eliah most of the time. His anger at hearing his name tarnished was more than he cared for.

“I fear nothing, pu
ny elf man! Mind your words or you
will see how easily your bones snap in my hands.” Avegarne stood and stretched, his bone popping from age and decay, yet he reached his regal eleven foot height. His face was half gray bone, they eye
gone with whatever took it
, and his scowl showed more teeth
and tusk
than flesh.

“Enough. Queen Mun Parr of the Hallowmoors, you are ready?” Vanessa looked to her left and up to the held platform that sported a throne of skulls and
layered
black tar. The monstrous four armed troll queen pointed a clawed finger from two of her hands back to the floating wizard assassin.

“
Yessss wees
are ready, but what of my take of the wes
ss
t?” Mun Parr stood, much to the struggle of the four
large
scraggly trolls holding the platform of their revered queen.

“You receive Kalik, Hurne, and Silverbridge, as agreed. Then, we have the western lands divide
d
between you, ogre and troll, north and south. East of the Garalan River belongs to Chazzrynn and King Johnas Valhera.”
Vanessa n
odded to the smiling black fang
s of Mun Parr, avoiding her beady red gaze. The trolls she had with
her numbered over two thousand. Nine foot screeching fiends, black claws and slimy skin,
and the hissing noises were enough to drive her mad.

“Then yousss master hasss not failed, asss we had expected. King Johnasss is wise to honor our dealsss.” Mun Parr sat back down, waiting for the ea
s
tern sun to finally lose its last bit of light to the darkness.

I
want my body back, Cam, I
care not for a
false king, I want you dead, and her as well…

“He is no king yet, is he?
I think the title a bit presumptuous.
” Eliah spoke rudely, his fine highborne elven features betraying his contempt and sarcasm.
He fiddled with the curved elven blade at his side, not that he knew how to use it, bu
t he had to act the part of a snob of a highborne
elf.
His body was gone, to the chasm, courtesy of the late Fadim. So Salah Cam, in the body of Eliah Shendrynn, had to be very clever to keep up appearances. He had tried to escape more than once, yet the surrounding armies gave him no reprieve. Everywhere, night and day, either trolls, ogre, or Vanessa Blackflame had been close by.
Eliah’s spirit inside was tormenting him constantly.

“He will be king, and you will get introduced when we arrive in Valhirst
, master Shendrynn
. But first, these western cities must fall. Johnas wants no heroes left in Chazzrynn, no one to
rise up as he takes his other kingdoms.”
She studied Eliah carefully. He had been teaching her much from the late Salah Cam’s
libraries, yet
his behavior was irregular at best. Sapphire of the East knew when someone was hiding something, just what this elf was concealing about himself she had yet to find out.
If it were not for his ability to concoct foul necrotic salves that had been slowly removing her burned flesh
and scars, she would have killed him already.

Quit toying, you will go ba
ck and take off that ring
…

“Oh, I cannot wait to meet this,
Johnas Valhera
, what an honor. I am sure he is regal and grand and brave, oh yes.” Eliah rolled his eyes, having not the slightest interest in seeing Valhirst or Johnas again. Once this battle was over, he would disappear back to the Sullan Swamps, and continue his research into immortality. Then, he would return here, and find his old body and dispose of thi
s pesky elf spirit and its frail vessel
, once and for all.

The agent of the Emerald Eight
drew her ornate black scimitar. Her black robes fluttered as she levitated. Out of respect for the
leading
beasts at her back, she noded to Avegarne and Mun Parr. In their wicked tongues of ogre and troll dialects, as quiet as their races allowed, their armies drew blades and weapons galore. The trolls squatted low and clenched their black claws into the earth. Ogre chiefs whipped thei
r long stringy hair about a
s they tugged their tusks in
hungry
anticipation.

“Armies of the Western Wastes and the Hallowmoors, we rip Southwind Keep
and Elcram
to the ground, and
trample it into the pages of history. A quiet march to the gates, and then leave none alive. After that, we all go our separate ways.” Vanessa smiled, the monstrous nobility returned the smile. For some reason, perhaps her scarred face upon such foreign beauty, they listened to her without question.

The ogre began their march down Alvander field, emerging from the pines and hills with careful steps. The trolls lurked toward Elcram
, ogre toward the keep
, yet wit
hin half a mile
they were all mixed together. Night was upon them, they swarmed with three deadly legions toward an empty and vulnerable Southwind Keep, and to their applaud they made very little noise.

“You are sure nothing is out of place, arcane or otherwise?” Vanessa hovered behind the last
of the troll warriors, next to the finely dressed and
hovering Eliah. Her senses of mystical sight had caught nothing, not one faint aura of magick anywhere besides on herself and her consort.

Take my blade, kill her, and get us to a priest
you wretch
…

“I am sure, I checked three times now, nothing my Caberran beauty.” Salah Cam lied, he had checked nothing. He cared only for maintaining his identity in this body, which right now had become difficult once more. Eliah Shendrynn wanted out, wanted control, he wanted to be heard. He drew the elven longblade, and managed to give it a twirl that looked believable.

“After this, you and I will return west to gather your things. Some time in the bedroom after, some more salve, and then we travel east to Valhirst.”
Vanessa smirked at Eliah, then turned her focus toward the closing view of Southwind Keep, and the army about to destroy it.

Vomit, vomit, if you fock her one more time I will kill you all…

“That will be nice, yes, very sweet of you.” Salah Cam felt to vomit, not from himself, but Eliah inside seemed repulsed by bedding a human woman. Everytime he took her in his chambers, the trapped elf inside made it nearly possible to enjoy. Perhaps he did not approve of interracial pleasure, maybe it was the scars or the violating use of his body against his will, or possibly he was even not attracted to women. Salah frowned, not wanting to think that he
had stolen the body of a
queer elf
whose spirit was watching
while he rode a Caberran girl in trade for arcane teachings.

“Sweet, yes, but why do you look sour?” Vanessa was suspect now, his facial expressions seemed odd, as if he did not have control of them.

He is sour, and he is old, and wrinkled, and a dead thing…

“No reason, no not you. It is the stench of Southwind Keep, I hate it so. Come, let us assist in its decimation,
for King Johnas
.” Salah Cam smiled, forcing Eliah out.

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“
Steady now, quiet, good.”
Hithins whispered through his c
urved white beak. “Be calm and wait for the order.”

Perrius Alvander, Knight of Southwind Keep by but a few months of age, was sweating profusely. His hand trembled as it gripped his broadsword, the vulture on his shoulder, white or not, did not seem to comfort him. “Lord Hithins, there are more than three thousand, we need to flee this is---“

“Patience young Alvander, we need to get them in close. Trust me, all will be fine.” Middir of Kivanis whispered from the balcony to the young boy of Southwind.
He had sensed two or three masters of the arcane among the approaching army, so covering the presence of Lazlette Academy here was imperative.
“Brothers Traelsidian, how are your wards against detections?”

Two men in floppy brimmed hats and black robes with blue shimmering glyphs nodded back to old plump professor Middir. Linnel Traelsidian, the older gray wizard had been holding an incantation in place for hours, one that blended the arcane and auras of life into their surroundings. Damoval, the younger professor of the brothers, had been masking
that
incantation with a more powerful channel that made it impossible to detect. Neither wished to speak, the length of their spells of illusion had them deep in focus.

“Very good professors. Brellmond Graniff, the
circle of Alvander Field is complete?”

“It is
,
Middir. Another few minutes and they will all be inside it. I will take the assistance of five of the thirty five students to hold it up, when the time is upon us. I wait for your signal.” Tall and strong, Brellmond of Shanador had spent long hours tracing a circle of blinding daylight around the field from keep to Elcram. From his motionless position here in Southwind, he was impressed even with himself for inscribing several miles of hidden spell without aid.