Angels and Elves- Act I

by William Collins

  “Wait, so what gift can we bring to make sure they accept it?” Joelle asked.

  “Me,” the winter angel hissed out a laugh. “My court need their angel, ever since the summer fools stole me.”

  “The seelie saved your life,” the summer angel replied.

  “Perhaps you should…” the angel of spring began, before her tone changed suddenly. “They have come!”

  Joelle didn’t need the angel to clarify who she meant. As one, all of the Venators ripped their weapons free and formed a tight circle in front of the angels.

  Galafrey and the other fae looked around in shock, seeing the Venators react but not knowing why.

  Joelle heard nothing until the first bomb dropped. One moment it was silent around the flaoting island, the next, a tree was ablaze.

  “By the lotus,” Galafrey cried. “How did they find us.”

  The tree on the opposite side of the island was abruptly on fire, lining up with the first tree.

  “How are they doing that?” Jed gasped.

  “Fire grenades,” Bane growled, summoning fire to his own hand.

  “We should put the fires out,” Sabine cried. “Before they spread.”

  “No!” said Joelle, gripping the fletch of her arrow as she cast about for the first flying monster. “They’ll swoop down and kill you if you’re distracted. Hold steady.”

  Finally, the valorcs came into view. They rose around the island in their dozens, wings flapping silently as they formed a giant ring, closing them in. Fear flooded through her, making her legs tremble. They were severely outnumbered, and it wasn’t just themselvs they had to keep safe. With their magic, the four of them might’ve stood a chance, but if the valorcs killed the angels, all hope would be lost.

  Joelle fought against her instinct to let loose a barrage of arrows. The valorcs were hovering in place, just out of range.

  “Okay,” she whispered. “The Traveile tree is our only way out of here. But we need to take the angels with us. We-”

  She cut off as a long valorc soared toward them, landing gracefully in the centre of the island. “I come in peace,” the valorc shouted, giving her pause.

  She longed to let her arrow fly, but knew once she did the valorcs surrounding them would be unleashed. There was no mistaking that the long valorc before them was the leader, Felsyth.

  She’d expected him to be largest of all the Valorcs, but he was shorter, leaner and far from young. His body was littered with scars, not to mention he had only one ear. An eyepatch also covered what Joelle assumed to be an empty socket. She wondered why the patch was such an odd colour, until he realised with a pang the eyepatch was human flesh.

  Felsyth’s black tongue flicked out and slid across black teeth as he spoke. “You’re new. Who have the fae ran to for aid?”

  “Venators,” Joelle replied, training her arrow on Felsyth’s forehead. “And we’re more than capable of killing you and your grunts if you don’t leave Mag-Mell forever.”

  Felsyth’s laugh sounded like a dog’s growl. “You’re a pretty girl,” his one black eye glinted. “Be smart, don’t let yourself get grotesque like me.”

  “You don’t have to worry about being ugly for much longer,” said Jed. “My friend could end you in a second. I’d listen to her.”

  “You Venators. Always so arrogant. Have any of you slain a valorc before, hmm? I’ve killed many of your kind. You squeal like pigs when you die, but you do taste delectable, I cannot lie.”

  Joelle heard Sabine whimper behind her, and her own stomach turned.

  “But don’t worry your pretty heads,” Felsyth contined. “For I am kinder than most of my kind. I will give you this one chance to surrender. Stand down and let us take those angels behind you. We will let you return home with us, to the grand towers of Velkarath, where you belong. If you do not surrender, me and mine shall devour your corpses and pick clean the bones. And my men shall burn this island to ash.”

  Joelle risked a glance to the valorcs in the distance. Many of them held red glass cylinders in their hands, containing more enchanted fire. Felsyth wasn’t buffing. Other valorcs held back curved swords and and razor tipped spears.

  Sabine failed to suppres a sob and Jed swore repeatedly.

  “You’re going to burn it down whether we surrender or not,” Bane snarled. “Velkarath destroy and cause chaos wherever they go, and show no mercy. We’re not stupid.”

  “Aye,” Felsyth nodded. “and yet you’re prepared to die all the same?” He raised a hand with two missing fingers, readying a signal for his valorcs to reign down fire on all of them. “Don’t give your lives to these faeries you don’t know. Come back with me and my men and become Rakarn. You will grow so much stronger there.”

  Bane let out a hollow chuckle. “Any of you wanna take this clown up on his offer?”

  “No chance,” Jed muttered.

  “Over my dead body,” she replied.

  “Good.” Bane stepped in front of them all.

  Joelle felt a pang of despair, for a second believing Bane was betraying them, but then he said. “I’d rather die a Venator than ever become a Rakarn. And if I’m to die today, then I promise I’m taking you with me.”

  Felsyth laughed even harder this time. “Ah, such spirit. You would’ve made a grand Dark-Realmer indeed.”

  Felsyth looked up to his grunts. “Leave one angel alive, that’s all we need. Kill the rest, kill them all!”

  The monstrous valorc leader roared and charged forward, even as Joelle let loose her arrow and flung her arm back to retrieve more. Felsyth fell to the ground, so her arrow sailed over his head and stuck into a tree trunk instead.

  Felsyth rose to his feet, in time to meet Bane who leaped at him, his sword sweeping through the air.

  Before she could see the battle between Bane and Felsyth, the other valorcs had landed, launnhing their fire bombs as they went. She pivoted where she stood, shooting explosive arrows through the sky. One arrow caught a valorc’s wing before he could land, obliterating the wing and causing him crash and slide across the island. Joelle fitted a new arrow and fired it into the grunt’s skull before he could rise.

  She whirled in the other direction, this time shooting an arrow into a fire bomb as it fell toward a tree. Her arrow caused the bomb to explode, but shoot it away from the tree and the island. But that was just one tree she’d saved; several others had already erupted into infernos. Walls of fire surrounded the island now, and one bomb had even been dropped onto the shack beside the angels.

  “Get them to the tree,” she heard Galafrey cry to the three faeries as he dueled one of the valorcs.

  The faeries were already running to get the angels from their hollows, but they were like sitting ducks for the valorcs. Before Joelle could intervene, one valorc threw his spear across the island. The spear struck true, piercing through both sides of the sidhe’s neck, who died almost instantly.

  Joelle repayed the valorc by firing an arrow through his own neck, before rapidly ripping another arrow free to fire up into the belly of the brute attempting to dive-bomb her. Even as that valorc crashed to the ground beside her, a new valorc rushed her from behind. She spun to face him, but he was to close and swiped the bow from her hands.

  He swiped again, but Joelle ducked before bobbing back and unleashing a ball of energy into his chest. The monster was flung back, smashing into a tree before stumbling off of the edge of island itself.

  Joelle felt a sudden scorching heat and realised a fire bomb had missed her face by inches as a valorc had lobbed it straight at her.

  “You little ushk,” she screamed, seizing the bomb with an air spell and launching it back at the grunt. It collided with the valorc’s face, engulfing him as he reared back, almost hitting Jed as he battled another monster with his axe.

  Further along, she saw Sabine using water spells on the trees. The fires had already devoured one half of the entire island.

  Yet another valorc swooped down on Joelle from behind, but
she rolled sideways before his talons could scratch out her eyes. As she shot back to her feet, she snatched the dagger from her boot and drove it up through the valorc’s chin.

  “Help!” a screech pierced the air, coming from one of the faerie. She was attempting to pry the summer angel from her tree when a valorc shoved his sword into her back.

  Jed got there a second too late, caving in the valorc’s skull, but even as he pulled his axe free, the faerie had crumpled, dead.

  Joelle continued to try and get to the angels, but so many valorcs blocked her way.

  Jed had taken to throwing Stunner spells around him to keep the monsters at bay as he tried to dislodge the angels, whilst Sabine had given up on stopping the fire and instead used air spells to hurl fiery branches at the enemy.

  Joelle ducked another valorc’s curved blade, slicing her dagger diagonally across his chest as she raced past him.

  She heard cruel laughter above the cacophony of fire and battle and turned to see Felsythe holding Bane up high by his throat. Bane’s face was soaked in blood and Felsythe had disarmed him, but just as Felscythe made to drive his sword into Bane’s stomach, Madagant grabbed his arm, sending a surge of electricity through it.

  Felsythe dropped Bane with a yelp and Joelle seized her chance, throwing her dagger as hard as she could. Her weapon spun through the air, before plunging into Felsythe’s collarbone, causing him to reel back as Bane crawled away from him.

  Joelle turned back, finally reaching the hollowed trees and helping Jed pull the summer angel out.

  “Get her to the Traveile tree,” she rasped. “I’ll get the other two

  Jed threw an acid spell at nearby valorcs before shaking his head vigorously. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You have too,” she implored, shooting shards of ice at the two valorcs flying toward them, peppering their wings.

  Sabine reached the third tree, gasping for breath.

  “Screw it,” Joelle cried. “You two get the angels, I’ll cover you.”

  Before she could hear their replies, a shape hurtled towards her. She dived to the side as Felsyth pounced where she’d stood.

  “Joelle!” Jed cried her name as Felsyth yanked the dagger out of his own body and advanced toward her.

  She threw an energy spell at Felsyth’s leg as he ran at her, causing him to fall to a knee, badly hurt. Joelle then summoned as much magic as she could, bending the particles around her into a new dagger, this one made out of natural light. The magical weapon would be more than sharp enough to kill Felsyth, however. As Joelle ran forward to finish him off, she realised Felsyth had been exagerating how hurt he was as he abrupltly charged forward, sezing her round the middle and throwing her through the air.

  She crashed into something hard and hot, which gave way under her weight, causing her to sprawl to the ground. The sheer heat overwhelmed her, and she realised Felsyth had thrown her directly into the burning shack.

  As she attempted to get to her feet, a chunk of the rook fell on top of her. She screamed in pain, frantically pushing the flaming wood away from her and scooting away. But this only put her further into the shack and away from escape.

  The wood that’d fallen from the roof blocked the door, the flames rising further, trapping her in. She’d burn alive in here.

  Joelle drew on the water element, trying to douse the roaring inferno all around her. The flames would only die down for a second, before flickering back, stronger than ever.

  “Joelle!” Jed cried her name again. Through the flames she saw him running to the shack.

  “No,” she screamed. Felsyth landed directly behind Jed lunging at him and biting down on Jed’s ear.

  She screamed again as she saw Jed’s ear ripped away from his own head. Her screams turned into incessant choking as the firesmoke started suffocating her. She fell to her knees, body wracked with coughs.

  An idea came to her. The water wasn’t working and she needed to save Jed. She couldn’t let Felsyth kill him. He might already have.

  She used Anatomy sorcery to turn her hands to stone so she could seize the burning wood in front of her and shift it aside. The heat was unbearable and she attempted to hold her breath even as the pain in her chest was blinding.

  She just managed to haul one chunk of wood aside when another fell from the burning roof, crashing into her back and driving her to the ground.

  She wheezed out a breath, trying to grab a gulp of fresh air, but there was only more smoke.

  This was it. She was done for. Joelle wondered faintly whether the smoke would kill her before she burned alive. Yes, that would be better.

  The sounds of battle had faded now. All she could hear was the relentless crackle of flames. The fire was consuming. There was nothing else.

  A great crack of wood thundered above her, and she felt yet more pieces of burning roof rain around her. Then she heard footsteps.

  Joelle used her remaining strength to raise her head as much as she could. She was so terribly heavy now. Through the smoke and the darkness at the edges of her vision she saw a shape emerge into the shack.

  Was it Jed? Come to pull her to safety. No, of course not. It was Felsyth, come to finish her off.

  The blurry figure swore in frustration as it neared her. Then she felt hands on her head, pulling her to her feet and into his chest. He supported her weight as he dragged her away from the burning wreckage. Joelle tried to hold onto him, but her conciusness was slipping away.

  The hallucinations from lack of oxygen had started. She was imagining it was Bane trying to save her.

  Chapter 22- Elfpire’s End

  Evan was growing tired of the stench wafting from the swamps.

  He and Brooke has been stuck in this cell for what must’ve been at least five hours now. He was cold, hungry and highly irritable.

  To try and escape the crushing boredom, Evan once again pressed his face against the slit of a window at the back of the dungeon. Through it, he could see out into the swamp sea beyond, where elves and Liskari had continued to skirmish.

  “Anything going on out there?” Brooke asked. “I haven’t heard cannonfire in a while.”

  “It’s died down now,” he grunted. “Maybe the Liskari have realised how many losses they’ve sustained and given up.”

  “I’m about to give up in a minute,” Brooke sighed. She lay on the hard stone floor, which is all the dungeon was, not even a bedrool to speak of. “Fancy treating people who’ve come to hewlp you like this.”

  “You should’ve let me blow that door apart ages ago,” he replied, yearning to unleash his magic.

  “And makes things worse? I told you, if we go out all guns blazing the elves will attack us. We were sent here to help them, not kill them.”

  “Well, technically we’re here to find a way into the Hell-Chasms so we can steal the demon god’s gauntlets. If the drow want to treat us like this, we might as well sneak out of here and get going.”

  “Except we don’t know anything about this realm and where to start looking for these chasms, and more importantly, our reinforcements from Veneseron will be sent here soon and they’ll have the Holophones we need so Loren can contact us. We just have to be patient.”

  He knew Brooke was right, but he couldn’t stand waiting here doing nothing.

  The dark elves had come down to the dungeons to interrogate them three times already. The first time they came down with their supply bag they’d taken from Evan, demanding to know what the battle spheres were and what the vials full of glowing liquid did. The elves had been adamant the spheres Vanderain must’ve packed in their bag were bombs he and Brooke were planning to detonate. Then the drow refused to believe the potions were to restore their magic in emergencies and were convinced it was poison.

  Their cell was one of a dozen all in a row. All he could see beyond their bars was a bate stone room and a set of steps leading up. He could hear voices nearing the top of the steps now and knew it meant the drow were back, probably for a fou
rth interogation.

  He didn’t think he could take more questions, especially when they never believed the answers. Evan was about to lose it and break out of the dungeons by force when he noticed a familiar voice amongst those coming down the steps.

  “You incarcerated them? Are you fools? Judging by the state of your castle the dungeons must be in incredibly destitute.”

  “Is that Xavier?” He asked Brooke, breaking into an astonished smile.

  “Who else uses words like that?” She beamed back.

  “We couldn’t be sure they weren’t working for the Liskari,” said an elf, revealed to be Shyr as she reached the bottom of the stairs first.

  “I’m telling you,” said Lok as he followed her in. “Tarensen’s message is all your Duke needs.”

  Evan felt a twinge of dislike as he realised Lok was one of their reinforcements. He had no reason to dislike the guy, he just felt something about him was a little off.

  His mood changed at once as Nova followed Lok in, flashing him a dazzling smile. Evan was surprised at how thrilled he was to see her, followed by the realisation that this meant he’d be more likely to embaress himself spectacualrly in front of her.

  Xavier came in behind Nova, grinning and waving at them as he did, whilst a Venator Evan wasn’t familiar with brought up the rear.

  The stranger looked to be Evan’s age, yet sported a large bushy beard and was well over six feet tall. His tangled man was the same shade of carrot as his beard, whilst his arms were twice the size of Evan’s legs. He was clearly at least half Mandon.

  Xavier’s joy at seeing them faded as his nose wrinkled. “Rueda, this place stinks worse than the rest of the castle. I was right. Don’t worry my friends, Xavier’s here to set you free.”

  “I’ve never been happier to see you.” Brooke got to her feet, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Are you implying you aren’t always overjoyed at my presence,” Xavier replied.

  “How did you get these idiots to realise we aren’t the enemy?” Evan asked, even as Brooke shot him a disaproving look.