“Alright. I guessed as much.” I smiled evilly, “Now tell me how it feels to lay there as a shadow of your former great self?”
“Not as good as I’d like it to be,” he conceded. “Luckily, I don’t feel any pain anymore—or this would be quite uncomfortable, now wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, it would. How about we make it uncomfortable?” I asked, kicking his body over and ripping the wings from his back and throwing them aside. Then I walked over to Sylvana and took the daggers from her hands. They were as light as a feather, yet sharp and deadly.
“What are you—,” he began, as I walked back to the half-corpse and knelt beside him.
“Now what message should we send your King?” I asked, tapping my chin with one dagger as if deep in thought. “Ah, I know,” I added as I ripped the breastplate off his chest along with his padded shirt. “Dear Lefrand,” I started, carving the letters deep into his chest. Crozan’s screams echoed across the square as the blades hissed and sizzled against his skin. “I’ll—see—you—soon. Raziel.”
“Just kill me already, you bastard! I didn’t torture her!” he screamed.
Now that just pissed me off. He just killed my lover and still dared bitch about me torturing him? The nerve.
“Alright then. Give him my best when you see him,” I hissed, thrusting my hand into his chest and ripping out his heart. I bit down on it and drank his blood. A strange sensation washed over me as I could feel his life course through my body. Did I just absorb part of his powers? My body started shaking as an enormous amount of—something I couldn’t explain entered me. I wasn’t expecting this to happen and had bitten down into the heart instinctively. The hairs on my arms and back stood up as a cold sweat broke out and my muscles expanded. Fortunately, it was over in mere seconds.
“What just happened?” Slayer asked as he helped me stand. Worry was written all over his face, but I had never felt so good in my life, except for the hole in my black heart left by Alara’s brutal death.
“Lord Raziel!” a voice called out from my left. A man stood there in front of what looked to be two-thousands of Crozan’s remaining soldiers. I got up and took a step towards the man. No one made a move, fear of death seeping deep into their bones. Everyone knew me, and if they hadn’t, they would from now on.
“Speak, soldier,” I yelled back and took another ten steps. The man did the same, his gaze downcast. He was a mountain of a man, fully armored and wielding a massive broad-ax. The man stopped a few feet away and dropped his ax to the ground.
“I assume I’m correct when I say that you wish for no more bloodshed?” he asked.
I nodded. “You’re right, good man. At least there’s someone smart enough to make a good call.”
“Very well, my Lord! My name is Widan, second in command of Lord Crozan's army. Or rather, the Human commander.”
“I won’t judge you today, Widan. Turn around and take your troops wherever you want, but not before you have someone take Crozan’s corpse back to Lefrand.”
“You won’t stop me, my Lord?” Widan asked, just to make sure.
“Go as far as your legs can carry you.”
I remained there, alone, as he picked his ax back up and nodded, turned his back to me, and disappeared into the throng of soldiers. Most turned around with him and trickled off towards the eastern gate.
A good half-an-hour later I stood facing what remained of the once decently prosperous town, holding Alara’s body in my arms. I scanned the crowd that stood there, happy to see Grestal alive and well. It pained me that Alara had to die, but if I’d had to choose between the two of them, I don’t know what I would have done.
I turned my back on everyone and walked into the hills, hugging her still mildly-warm body tightly. No one asked anything of me, and I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing. Those who knew me well already figured out as much.
I thought about where to lay her body to rest and decided upon where I dismounted my stallion on the ridge. It was a peaceful spot that overlooked the whole region and what we’d shared in this life. My stallion was still waiting, pawing his hooves on the ground as I approached and digging small trenches in the mud as if he knew what I was planning. His face reflected how I felt. What a marvelous creature he was, sharing the pain with me. I was always amazed at the obedience and loyalty of animals. They deserved far more kindness and praise than humans as their loyalty couldn’t be bought.
It took me about a minute to dig the grave deep enough. With a last kiss on her forehead, I stared longingly into her eyes. Even in death, her eyes sparkled as they reflected the sun.
I finally dropped to my knees, still holding her. Why did it have to be like this? Hadn’t I done enough for that cursed bastard? Did she deserve such a cruel fate, only to be killed like a dog? She never wronged anyone and was always there for whoever needed help.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, it was time to let her go. I placed Alara gently in the grave, closed her eyes, and sealed it up, then rammed the wings into the ground, marking the place of her eternal rest. I knelt there for what seemed like an eternity, trying to my best to say goodbye and mourn, but tears wouldn’t come. Wasn’t I allowed to mourn and lay her to rest?
After a while, something nudged my shoulder. Opening my eyes, I felt a satin nose touch my cheek and forehead. My stallion whickered softly. It felt as if the animal was saying that it was time to go. Indeed, it was time. We needed to move quickly in order to escape any potential pursuit. I sincerely doubted anyone would already come after us, but Lefrand had a special tie to us, his so-called ‘children’, and knew Crozan was dead.
The sun was already setting as I rode back to meet my people. Helena and Sylvana sat next to Slayer and Calina who threw wary glances at the two women. It was logical that my friends wouldn't trust them, no one in their right mind would. However, they had one very important thing in their favor—no one knew them, and all my people had seen was their appearance and assistance during my battle with Crozan.
Grestal sat with another group. I thought I recognized some of the men sitting and standing around him. They were the Newfolk’s defenders from earlier, and not many of them were left. Only around seventy from what I could see. The remaining civilian populace wasn’t doing much better. I doubted there were more than five hundred of them alive.
I stood there, observing the Elves as they made small movements with their hands and pretended as if I had no idea what they were doing. Luckily for me, my Elves had taught me their race’s form of hand signs.
“What will we do?” Sylvana asked with her hands.
“We wait until he decides what to do with us,” Helena replied.
Indeed, what could they do? Sylvana frowned and shrugged her shoulders.
“Grestal, Slayer, and Calina, with me.”
Chapter Thirteen
I rode past the group and didn’t stop for over a hundred feet. The three followed me quickly to see what I wanted. A short ride later, I got off my horse and sat down on a large rock with a perfectly flat surface. What an interesting thing. If Newfolk hadn’t been destroyed, I might have brought it to Alara’s place.
I sat upright and sighed, looking up at the sky until the three caught up and sat around me. Calina sat in the middle between the two men, feeling slightly uncomfortable as she first looked at one and then the other.
“What’s the situation?” I finally asked after a long moment of silence. “I mean, how many civilians have made it out alive, and how many defenders have you lost, Grestal?”
The young man straightened at the question.
“My lord. I think about seventy are left alive, mostly infantry as the archers had been taken out by the enemy archers or burned to death in the towers. Regarding the civilians, I—don't really have a good answer for that. It seemed to me that something between five and eight hundred made it out alive.”
“All without supplies, right?” I asked, curious to hear the situation.
“Yes, my lord. Howe
ver, there is a small group of vampires within that number. A bunch that had been staying for a while. They have been helping out a lot with the hard chores around the settlement due to their physique and even with the fighting. Unfortunately, they were away when it started, but I saw them fighting later on with my own eyes. They held the broken-down gate by themselves.”
My eyebrows shot up the revelation. Why would Vampires visit Newfolk and even help out? Unless—.”
“How many?”
“I think it’s about forty, not quite sure. But I have to be honest, they are the ones who we have to thank for having any civilians left alive. As the big guy held the gate, half the number protected what they could.”
“That’s surprisingly good news if I’m to be honest,” I said and thought for a moment. “That makes this situation a whole lot easier. Have them split up between all the civilians and feed them their blood. A few drops are enough for an adult, that way they won't feel the fatigue from the upcoming journey.”
The three looked up at me as if I’d lost it.
“My lord?” Grestal asked, his face narrowed in a frown. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am. Now, you three will drink from me directly. You too, Elves. Stop hiding, it’s annoying.”
I threw a pebble at a nearby bush, much harder than I should have admittedly, and elicited a scream. It rustled for a moment before Sylvana and Helena came out crawling. They wore sheepish looks on their faces as they looked at me apologetically. The three commanders shot up and drew their weapons in response.
“Sorry about this,” the Elf called Sylvana laughed. “Shouldn’t have gone this way.” She plucked a strand of hair that sat in her face and tucked it behind her ear. For some strange reason, my heart fluttered at her movement. It was almost identical to how Alara used to do it.
“It's alright,” I replied, holding my hand up for the three to stop. “Sit down. They didn't try anything or I would have killed them myself. Now, how about you join us for a talk? I didn't have the chance to thank you for the assistance you provided.”
The Elves stood motionless as they observed both me and my officers, then made a couple of gestures that left the others clueless and walked over, sitting to the far side of the group. “Don't worry, they won't attack you unless I want them to, ladies,” I added, amused by the lack of faith they showed me.
“Lord Raziel. It’s a pleasure finally meeting you in person, face to face,” Sylvana said with a slight nod. Her face betrayed how she felt, which could only be described as mixed. Then again, I tried to put myself in her place and think of how I would have felt. Not much different.
“You two are siblings?”
“Yes, my Lord,” Sylvana blurted out. Helena hit her on the wrist, eliciting a poisonous stare from me. After all, it was hard not to notice.
“I would recommend you speak the truth and be honest. I have a—way to sense if someone is trying to sell me horse shit for truth.”
“Very well then,” Helena said, her voice weak and wavering. She gave off an appearance of importance and pride, but she was intimidated by me, so whenever she spoke it showed. Or rather, it showed for both sisters. “My name is Helena, and yes, we are both Elven siblings taken in by the King a long time ago.”
I sat upright again at hearing her mentioning Lefrand.
“Taken in? He doesn’t take people in, he makes them stay through fear.”
“You’re right, Lord Raziel,” Helena replied weakly.
“He sent us to assassinate you together with Crozan or it would be our lives,” Sylvana went on. “We might have even tried to as we planned to use your head to get close to that leech and kill him for all the things he did to us.”
“Then we had a change of heart and decided to try our luck with you, Lord Raziel,” Helena finished for her sister.
“Is that truthful enough?” the other sister asked.
I frowned and stared the two down. They felt uncomfortable under my gaze, that much was sure, but I had to make them squirm for a moment longer to see if I could elicit emotion out of them or anything else. They never wavered. Before long, however, I burst out with laughter.
“You two are rather interesting. You’re skilled at fighting and easy on the eyes at the same time, yet there still remains a naiveté inside you. I have no way of telling the truth as much as any other, but now I feel I can partially trust you, little ladies.”
Unsheathing my sword and shield, I got up and stepped up toward my three commanders, cutting my wrist. I first offered it to Grestal, knowing he despised blood, but it was a necessity. He pressed his lips against my wrist and drank. Calina and Slayer followed shortly after, draining a good third of my blood. At least they’d become much stronger than they used to be.
“What the hell are they doing?” Helena asked under her breath. I glanced their way to show them I heard the remark but otherwise made no move.
Sylvana shrugged.
“Feeding them his blood? How the hell should I know,” Sylvana whispered to her sister.
“You will join them in a moment, Elves,” I said, interrupting their conversation.
Finishing up, I walked over to them and stopped in front of Sylvana, who looked up with large, lustful eyes. I met them like a lover would, almost drowning inside them. Emotions I thought I never had emerged deep from within. They weren’t the same as with Alara, no, this was something—different? Yes, this was more like there was a string that had pulled us together and into an embrace. This was instinct and attraction on a primal level.
Sylvana's lips forced me back to reality as she pressed them against my wrist, drinking the powerful liquid. Helena's eyes opened wide in shock. Her sister hadn't even protested nor thought about the fact that I was possibly scheming something. It wasn't in an Elves’ nature to be so trusting, but just now she threw everything aside in what they believed and went ahead, drinking my blood.
“Helena? Why are you being so rude?” Sylvana asked.
“Huh? What am—?”
“Lord Raziel is offering you his blood. Why aren’t you accepting?”
She spaced out for a long moment, probably lost in her own thoughts.
“What? Yeah, sorry,” she muttered like a scolded child, her face turning crimson in a single heartbeat.
“Drink his blood, sister. Don’t worry, it’s decently pure,” Sylvana whispered.
The younger sister followed suit and started drinking hungrily as if obsessed. A searing pain brought her back to reality. Her arm hurt, but why? Then she noticed Sylvana pinching her hard.
“The hell? Why are you pinching me?”
“Because you’re being rude in taking more than you should!”
“That’s enough, you two. Now that we have all the pleasantries out of the way, I want to know something. Well, more something's in this case,” I said and sat back on the flat rock. The two Elves turned towards me, still rubbing their cheeks. “Why were you with the King? Elves are rare in these parts of the world. And more importantly, why did you betray Crozan?”
I noticed the discomfort I placed on them, but I wouldn’t be backing down. If I was to even remotely trust the newcomers, they had to trust me as well. So, for well over fifteen minutes, stories were swapped. The Sisters told me a little bit about themselves and I did mostly the same. Calina, Grestal, and Slayer had been silent the whole while, staring somewhere in the distance or up into the sky, acting as if they weren’t interested.
“What do you propose?” I asked after everyone had their turn speaking. No one really knew the answer. We couldn't stay there nor could we go back. The only way was to move on and see where it took us.
We no longer had an allegiance to anyone but ourselves, but then again, I was known throughout the lands as a great warrior. No one would accept me willingly as it would bring up questions. Why would someone who ranked so highly in the kingdom’s hierarchy run and try to seek refuge with a smaller Lord or another King?
“There is a place,” Helena fi
nally said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. All eyes shot her way and she seemed to cringe under our combined stares. “There is—an abandoned Elven city forbidden to anyone but the Elves. Unless the proper magic is chanted, no one would be even able to find it or enter the domain around it. It isn't particularly big, but more than enough to house your coven and the civilians.”
“Helena?” Sylvana asked, turning towards her sister. “What are you talking about?”
“Within the Sleeping forest, there is a part that—is hard to explain. You seem to go around in circles for ages and you just wind up where you started after a while. The city itself is partially above and partially below ground. I think that would be a good new start for us now that we have shifted our allegiances.”
“And where is the Sleeping Forest?” I asked.
“It’s about seven days on horseback or running while under magic, far to the East.”
“Lucky for us then, huh? We seemed to be going East anyway,” I remarked as I got up, my eyes still lingering on Sylvana's. She looked away and played with her long hair but dared another look when she knew I wasn't looking.
“You two will ride with me,” I said to Sylvana and Helena. “You three, get the army and civilians ready. We leave within the hour.”
Chapter Fourteen
Days passed as my army, with the addition of the civilian populace, had been making its way Westward. The end was far from sight, our morale pretty low and the supplies dwindling rather quickly, especially with the added civilians from Newfolk. The soldiers were being rationed for two days now and things weren’t looking good, especially once the civilian populace was given only half of what they had been getting.
The carts were holding us back in the deep mud along with fatigue. A lot of wounded civilians and soldiers from the raid on the settlement didn’t help the situation either. Many of them kept groaning and screaming from pain over their injuries. To top it all off, we were surrounded by a group of bandits, no larger than four hundred men and women.
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