by Eric Vall
Elves were generally determined to hate us mages, but both Aurora and Shoshanne had earned a decent measure of respect amongst them for their many talents.
I pulled the healer against me to tuck a kiss in her copper curls, and she sent me a sparkling smile as she turned red straight to her roots.
“How does the staff work?” Cayla asked curiously.
“I have no idea,” Shoshanne admitted as she eyed the gleaming gem. “I have never seen a staff like this in my life.”
Aurora furrowed her brow. “Abrus had a similar one, but his was made of silver. Before Mason destroyed it, anyway.”
Everyone turned to stare at me, and I shrugged.
“What?” I asked. “It was an accident. Kind of.”
Aurora rolled her eyes and turned back to Shoshanne.
“Abrus told me once that a mage who has mastered their element can channel their intentions through a gem with practice,” the half-elf explained. “It can be an extension of yourself, same as Bobbie.”
“But Bobbie isn’t an element,” Shoshanne pointed out.
“And it doesn’t matter, does it?” Aurora said with a grin. “That’s just what Abrus said about magery, but channeling gems are a form of magic all their own. So, a mage can use them to channel their own powers, or an elf could combine rune magic with the power of a gem. Anyone can use them if they know how to connect with them.”
“Our ancient healers relied on them,” Dragir explained, and he came around the table to lay the staff out for us to look at. “Before rune magic was discovered, channeling gems were the only known magic amongst the elves. Then my grandfather discovered Halcyan in the far south and began forming staffs from the material. Soon, everyone realized Halcyan could strengthen the connection between the gem and its owner. That’s why these staffs were so valuable to healers. They are very rare now.”
“How did the healers use them?” Shoshanne asked.
“I do not know,” the elf admitted, “I am no healer. I have only worked with my grandfather’s weaponry, but my father is right. You’re a very talented healer. I am sure with practice you will become familiar with the ways of the staff. Begin by connecting with the gem and follow your instincts.”
Shoshanne furrowed her brow and looked back at the pulsing gem.
“I hope I can figure it out,” she mumbled. “If it’s such an ancient relic, I would hate to waste it.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Deya insisted. “It is yours now. You deserve it.”
Shoshanne only looked more unsettled about the gift, and she nervously nudged the staff closer to me.
“Mason should have it,” Shoshanne countered once more.
I snorted and nudged the staff right back toward her.
“I’ve got all the magic I can handle right now,” I assured the healer.
The whispers of the runes had been echoing in my mind all this time, and even though I was working to ignore them, it was incredibly difficult to focus fully on everything around me.
“Speaking of which,” Dragir cut in, “we are only one rune short.”
I nodded my agreement, and the elf picked up the last branding iron.
Cayla recommended Deya not watch the process, so Haragh escorted the beautiful elf from the chamber for the last branding. Once it was done and I’d regained my ability to see straight again, Dragir suggested we head outside to test the strength of the runes’ power. He wanted to be sure the density of the lines would be adequate enough, and I definitely didn’t want to get all the way to Illaria before I found out they needed to be adjusted.
The moment we came out of the cave and into the sunlight, searing pain shot through my eyes, and I clamped them shut as I staggered a little. The world looked like a magnifying glass had been held up to it, but it didn’t just make everything bigger and brighter. It made it unbearably loud.
“Do not worry,” Dragir called over his shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”
I was blinking furiously all the way up the path beside the cove, and the waves sounded like boulders rattling around a glass jar. Every footstep grated against my brain, and the chatting of the women rang so loud I could hardly discern their words even though they were right in front of me.
Somehow, I could still hear the whispers of the runes through it all, and I was a little queasy from the onrush of my heightened senses.
When we joined Dragir on the cliff side, I shuffled to his side, and he pointed a lazy finger way out along the coast.
“Do you see where the cliff curves out toward the ocean?” he asked, and I nodded as my eyes began to settle down a bit. “Look out that way, and let your eyes adjust to the distance. Then tell me what you can see.”
It took a moment, but the longer I kept my eyes trained on a single point, the clearer everything became, and the pain gradually abated. Soon, I could see individual leaves on the trees, and the technicolor thorns on every vine were perfectly crisp. Then I shifted my gaze further, and my mouth gaped open when I noticed a tiny speckled egg in a nest at the top of a tree.
It began to tremble a little as a small crack appeared, and my ears trained themselves in the same direction while my focus zeroed in on the egg.
Then I heard a light chirping.
“Look at that,” I mumbled. “It’s hatching.”
Dragir furrowed his brow and squinted to get a look.
“What’s hatching?” he asked after a while.
I pointed ahead. “That little bird,” I said as a grin spread across my face, “with the weird blue eyes. He just popped out.”
Deya joined us and squinted as well, but neither elf seemed able to find what I was talking about. Granted, the nest was on the furthest tree before the coastline curved back and disappeared, but they were elves.
They could see everything.
“Come on,” I tried, and I straightened my arm so it was directed right at the nest. “Right there, see? You can hear him peeping.”
Dragir cleared his throat after a moment.
“Okay, so … ” he mused, “I may have had you thicken those lines a little more than necessary.”
I dragged my sights from the nest and found Dragir with a spacy look on his face as he continued to squint toward the furthest edge of the cliff.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean I do not see or hear this little bird,” he said.
“Seriously?” I chuckled. “He’s right there. Neither of you can see it?”
“Not at all,” the elf assured me, “but this is okay, I think the drugs may have skewed my measurements is all. I could have sworn the iron was not thick enough, but … at least it’s not a dangerous rune. You will just have slightly more acute senses than we anticipated.”
“How acute?” I asked.
“Acute enough to see a little bird hatching somewhere over there.” Dragir shrugged. “You’ll have to test this all out yourself.”
Aurora sighed behind me, and I turned to send her a shit eating grin.
“Bet you’ve never met a mage who can see and hear better than you,” I teased.
“Don’t talk to me,” the half-elf grumbled with a scowl on her face.
“Why?” I asked with a wink. “Is it hard to hear me from way over there?”
Aurora pouted and looked ready to hurl a dagger at me, but the notion gave me an idea.
“Hey, let’s test the healing rune,” I decided, and I pulled a dagger from my sheath.
“You already know it works,” Cayla insisted uneasily.
“Yeah, it healed the brandings, but I wanna know what my time is,” I explained. “From injured to fully healed.”
I handed the dagger over to Dragir, and all of my women moved to protest immediately. I nodded to Dragir before they could intercept, though, and the elf didn’t hesitate to send the dagger spiraling toward my stomach.
What I didn’t expect was the sound of the blade slicing through the air.
It reminded me of papercuts for some re
ason, but then the blade impaled me, and my breath hitched in pain.
The women all shrieked, but the voices of my healing rune rose in retaliation to drown them out, and I gritted my teeth as I wrenched the blade out.
The same overwhelming weight pressed down once more and turned my limbs into lead, and I started slowly counting in my head.
By the time I got to five, the pain was gone, and by ten the dagger wound was entirely healed.
I furrowed my brow. “Hold on, does this rune heal faster than your own body?” I asked Dragir.
“Of course,” the elf replied casually. “You said you have possessed mages back in Serin. I saw what that crazy mage was capable of. Elven healing will not save you from a mage, so I gave you what I thought might. You’re not immortal by any means, but if they set you on fire or try to drown you, you’ll recover rather quickly.”
“In ten seconds,” I laughed as I tried to wrap my head around this.
“Depending on the severity,” Dragir clarified.
Haragh had been as silent as the dead since we’d begun the branding process, and now he stormed over to get a closer look at the wound. I could tell he was already fighting the urge to admit he was impressed, and when he saw there wasn’t a single mark on my stomach, he shook his head to himself.
Then the half-ogre spared the briefest glance toward the elf.
“Not bad,” he grunted.
“You want one?” Dragir asked, and there was a hint of a challenge in his tone.
“Fuck no,” Haragh shot back. “You’re not comin’ near me with that flamin’ iron.”
“No?” Dragir grinned. “Not as strong as you claim, huh?”
I choked back a laugh as the elf turned his back on Haragh and headed down the path, and the half-ogre glowered at the ground.
“We’re leavin’ now, yeah?” he growled.
“Sure, buddy,” I chuckled. “Now, we can leave.”
Haragh stubbornly waited beside the Mustang on the cliff while the rest of us returned to the fortress to gather up the last of our things, and while Shoshanne packed her healer’s bag, the other three women wandered down the jetty to admire the cove one last time.
The sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and the water glittered in amber and gold as the sea dragons began to crest near the horizon.
I couldn’t help gawking as they made their way toward the inlet where Deya stood waiting for them, and I watched the individual droplets of water peel across their fins for several minutes.
The rattling of the waves started to grate on my ears, though, so I turned away from the beautiful scene and went to look for Dragir.
I felt a hundred times better about leaving Nalnora now that I knew he wouldn’t be warring with his rune for the rest of his life, but after everything he’d done for us, I wasn’t very eager to leave him behind. Not only had he been the first elf in the whole jungle to hear me out about the Master, but he’d fought beside me to destroy his army not once, but twice.
I found Dragir back in his work room packing the three branding irons away in a leather wrap, and he glanced over when I entered.
Then he slipped an engraving tool in the wrapping as well before he rolled it all up and tied it securely.
“Here,” he said and held the leather bundle out to me.
“Are you serious?” I asked.
Dragir nodded, and I took the leather wrap.
“I don’t even know how to thank you, man,” I told him sincerely. “This is … fucking awesome. Plus the brandings, and the Halcyan blades. You’re really saving our asses.”
“It is the least I can do, but tread carefully with rune magic,” he warned. “You’re still far from being able to create your own runes from scratch, but you have the mapping and that silly book my sister stole from Aeris. Practicing with the runes in the book will help you.”
“Understood,” I told the elf.
“Also, I feel I must warn you not to underestimate the Elven Council,” Dragir added. “You and Deya are breaking a law that has been in place for over seven hundred years. So, get out of Nalnora as quickly as possible. If anyone sees my sister heading west with you, they will not hesitate to cross the border and get her back.”
“What will Qiran do when he notices she’s gone?”
“He will shut himself up and set guards at every border of our lands,” Dragir assured me. “Deya is under the protection of House Quyn until her seventieth year. If the Council finds out what you’ve done, all of House Quyn will pay the price.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “Look, if you need any weapons, get a message to me in Serin, alright?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dragir said with a shrug. “These bazookas of yours have given me a few ideas, and you’ve done more than enough for House Quyn. I’ll do what I can for the two of you from here, but if anyone outside our House realizes Deya is missing, it is you they will suspect. Luir and Aeris will make sure of it.”
I nodded as my pulse kicked up, and the weight of what I was about to do hit me like a brick to the stomach.
“They wouldn’t start a war over her, would they?” I asked uneasily.
“I would like to say no,” Dragir replied, “but this issue between you and Luir could change many things. He is a very unpredictable man, and from the sound of it, he already suspects your relationship with Deya. Watch for the owls and keep your focus sharp.”
The elf tapped his ear, and I nodded my agreement.
Knowing I had the three runes branded into my skin settled my nerves a bit on this point, but the memory of Luir’s army of Wendigo was stark in my mind as I followed Dragir back through the vaulted chamber and out into the cove.
Deya looped her arm in her brother’s as they strolled up the path to the cliffside, and they spoke together in Elvish for nearly half an hour while we loaded up the Mustang with the last few items.
From the looks of it, Dragir was only nodding along by this point, and Deya continued to ramble anxiously like a mother hen. Eventually, Dragir just turned her toward the Mustang and prodded her forward, and she was speaking all the faster when I nudged her into the front seat.
Then Ruela leapt in after her, and I glanced at Dragir.
“Does the dog have to come with?” I muttered as quietly as possible. It wasn’t that I didn’t love dogs, I just knew when a family got one, the husband and dad normally ended up being the one who took the pet out for walks and cleaned up the poop.
The women still heard me, though, and all four gave their adamant approval.
“Alright,” I relented, “but I’m not taking care of the dog when we get to Serin. I mean it. She’s all of your responsibility. If she eats someone, I don’t wanna hear about it, and I’m not in charge of running that energy down either. Understood?”
Deya blew me a kiss, but I was already regretting the decision.
Ruela’s massive head was resting in the beautiful elf’s lap, and something about the look in her stark green eyes had me thinking she was gonna cause a hell of a lot of trouble in Illaria.
Haragh joined Ruela and Deya in the front seat, and Dragir sighed as he dragged an affectionate hand along Bobbie’s front fender.
“I will miss you, Mustang,” Dragir informed the car. His eyelids were still at half mast, but he wasn’t swaying any more, and I figured he’d probably be sober by tomorrow.
“If you ever come out to Serin, I’ll build you a car of your own,” I told the elf, and I held out my hand to shake his.
“I will hold you to that,” Dragir said as an eager glint came to his serpentine eyes, “but more importantly--”
“I know,” I cut in. “I’ll look after Deya.”
Dragir snorted. “I was going to say try not to die,” he replied. “I already know you will do all you can for Deya. But if anyone ever asks where you learned about rune magic, we’ve never met, you don’t know who Dragir is, and an elf named Rhys gave you those brandings.”
“Deal,” I laughed. “Hey, next tim
e you see Rhys’ wife, tell her I say hi.”
“Absolutely not,” Dragir shot back with a broad grin. “You have enough women, get out of here.”
I shook my head as I dropped into the driver’s seat, and Dragir sighed wistfully while he stepped back to eye the Mustang one last time.
Deya leaned over me to bid her brother a final farewell, but the man only spared her half a wave and kept his hazy eyes on the car.
Then Bobbie gave a deep growl, and the four women hollered their goodbyes out the windows as we left Dragir beside the path above the hidden cove.
We headed north along the cliff’s edge for as long as possible so Deya could enjoy a last glimpse of the ocean, and once we reached the road to Rhoemir, we turned to follow it west.
Aurora leaned over the seat to give Deya’s shoulder a light squeeze when she heard the beautiful elf let out a low sigh.
“Don’t worry,” Aurora told her. “Dragir will take care of the dragons while you’re gone.”
Deya giggled to herself, and I glanced sidelong at her.
“I don’t see how,” she said. “He was too drugged to remember to ask me about the rune.”
“Wait a minute, Dragir never got to sit down with you about the rune Nemris showed you?” I asked.
A mischievous glint came to Deya’s violet eyes.
“What?” she asked innocently. “I know nothing about rune magic. Remember? I’m just the little sister who thinks an engraving tool is a metal stick.”
I laughed heartily as I imagined Dragir sobering up to realize he’d missed his chance to decipher the new rune, and Deya pulled an iridescent scale from her bag.
The rune Nemris had shown her was carved neatly into the strange pearly surface of the dragon scale, and the beautiful elf trailed a slender finger along the looping lines.
“I will keep an eye on the dragons myself,” Deya assured the half-elf. “This way, I can visit the cove whenever I want, and I won’t be so homesick.”
Aurora gave a giddy little bounce in the backseat, and I smirked at Deya.
“You’re a terrible little sister,” I informed her. “You know how pissed he’s gonna be about this.”