Blessed Blades (The Elven-Trinity Book 5)

by Mark Albany

  I felt like there was a good deal to address here, but I was struggling to stay awake. My eyes drifted shut for what I really hoped was a long session of uninterrupted, dreamless sleep.

  13

  I didn’t want to wake up. I knew that I would have to at some point, but exhausted as I was from everything that had happened the day before, all I could really think about was how much I wished that I could just remain where I was for the rest of the day. Hell, for the rest of the week, without having to move from the spot that I was on. It was comfortable, and I was tangled up with a selection of beautiful, and what still felt like naked, women. I looked over the forest, which was bathed in morning sunlight.

  I sighed, knowing that I wasn’t going to be getting any more sleep. I felt somewhat rested, and that would have to do in this case, and I started playing with Aliana’s hair. It wasn’t going to be long before they all started waking up, and we were going to start talking about what other life-threatening situations we were going to be putting ourselves in. But until then, I could enjoy the early morning view, the touch of a beautiful woman near me, and for the moment, I didn’t think that my life could get any better.

  Aliana’s eyes opened as she looked over to me, smiling and closing again to me, her fingers running up over my body and pulling me in closer to her as I pulled her in near to me, kissing her tenderly on the forehead, and then one playful touch to the tip of her nose.

  She chuckled softly, shaking her head at me as she returned the kisses, but to my neck and shoulders instead.

  “You’re an odd, odd man, Grant,” she whispered, idly tracing her fingers over my body. “And I mean that in the best of ways.”

  I smiled, but her words seemed to have the effect of waking the rest of our team up, one by one. First Briare, who looked radiant in the morning light, and then Norel. They all looked rather radiant, I realized, licking my lips. No, I didn’t think that we had time for any of that, as tempted as I was. Instead, I pulled Aliana in closer, kissing her lips tenderly and reaching over for where my trousers had been tossed.

  “We’ll get to that later, lovely,” she whispered, her hand gliding over my cock before moving away and allowing me to get dressed properly.

  Lyth was up and awake, although providing us the privacy to get our clothes back on. I wasn’t sure how she felt about Faye joining in the sex. I still didn’t know how she felt about Aliana, Braire, Norel and I being in a physical relationship, although from the look that she had been paying us the night before was any kind of indication, I could only think that she was somewhat interested in what we had to share.

  Once we were all dressed, there was no discussion over what we would be having for our breakfast as there was a hefty amount of the buck that Lyth had caught the night before left over, as well as more than enough of the bread and even some dried fruits to make it quite the filling meal. We had been planning for a longer trip initially, and while stops for supplies had been in those plans, there was still more than enough to allow for us to eat and eat well. I didn’t quite mind, though again, as Norel passed around the mead that she had brought, I decided to enjoy some water, cool and freshly collected from a nearby creek.

  Norel was still going to tease me about that, but I still didn’t like the taste. Too sweet, too cloying and too gentle on the senses. I’d found that when I was drinking liquor, I wanted to know it. It was a matter of taste, and she could mock me all she wanted about that.

  That said, I mused, looking around as we enjoyed most of our meal in silence, I knew that there was a topic that we were avoiding, and it seemed like I wasn’t the only one that wanted our little victory celebration to end. None of the group seemed to want to deal with the fact that there was something large and corpulent in the metaphorical room.

  “Are we just not going to talk about it then?” I asked, looking around to the rest of them as we were coming to the end of our meal. Aliana and Norel didn’t look up from their food, while the rest all turned to me, looking like they were going to dread my answer to the question that they just knew they had to ask.

  I could understand. I wanted this moment of enjoyment and basking to last forever, but in the end, I knew that it wasn’t meant to be.

  “Talk about what?” Faye finally asked, looking me firmly in the eye.

  “Well, the fact that the sword that Lyth now carries worked on breaking Abarat’s control over you Faye,” I said, looking around as the rest of them were reluctantly dragged into the conversation as well.

  “What about it?” Lyth asked, tilting her head. “We still have the sword, and that appears to be half the battle already.”

  “I hate to say this, but I think what Grant means is that while, yes, having the sword is half the battle, it was the easier half of the battle,” Aliana said, finally looking away from the flatbread that she’d been toying with. “Isn’t that right, Grant?”

  I nodded. “Well, there was a part of the spell that you mentioned, Lyth, about how you need to have some sort of authority over the person that you’re trying to break the control over, which meant that there will have to be some sort of authority over the person in question, yes?”

  Aliana looked over to Lyth, who still didn’t look like she understood what the problem with what I was saying was. I sighed, shaking my head as I looked around to the rest of them.

  “Does nobody really see the problem here?” I asked, looking around to them.

  “Who would have any kind of authority over the Emperor?” Norel asked, joining Aliana in peering at Lyth, who finally seemed to understand what we were talking about.

  “Oh,” Lyth said, eyeing the rest of us. “You’ll need me to have some sort of authority over the Emperor, yes? Well, considering my status, I don’t think that should be a problem. The human emperors came after the elven royal families, if you’ll recall.

  “Well, yes,” I said, even if I didn’t remember that myself. There was some sort of mention about the emperors being put in place by a council of mages, but the details of succession had never been made clear to me, either by the books that I’d read and what had been told to me by the sisters.

  “Would that be enough to break the hold?” Norel asked, looking over to Lyth.

  The royal elf shrugged. “It will have to be, I suppose. It’s not like we have any other member of a royal family, elf or human, among us, right?”

  I nodded. That was a good point. Even if Lyth wasn’t the finest option to break Abarat’s control over the emperor, it wasn’t like we had any better choices for the position.

  “Even so,” Faye said, shaking her head. “There is no telling of what would be required to break the hold over the Emperor. What Abarat had over me can’t be compared to what Abarat would put on a man like that to make sure that his command over an entire empire is secure.”

  Lyth shrugged again. “It’s not like we have a choice in the matter. Besides, I do believe that I can do it.”

  “And, again, it’s not like we have a choice,” I grumbled under my breath.

  “All I need is to be in the same room with him, and given some time and effort, and we can get it done,” Lyth said, sounding a lot more confident than I was feeling at the moment. As plans went, this had to be the one with the most holes that I had ever seen.

  “This… isn’t exactly the most promising of starts,” I said, leaning back against a tree.

  “We have more now than what we started out with,” Lyth said, jumping lightly up to her feet, pulling the sword out. “We have the weapon that we need for the job, and we have Faye on our side.”

  “Besides, without the emperor on our side, this whole fight against Abarat is doomed even before it begins,” Braire pointed out. “We’ll have to try it anyway, and really, really hope that we have what it takes to win this.”

  Faye nodded. “And you’re not wrong. About me, anyway. Having me on your side now is definitely a boon, since not only do you have my powers and martial abilities beside you this time, but you a
lso have the knowledge of the Emperor’s movements that I’ve been privy to since I am still technically one of his Officials.”

  “That will be useful, I have to imagine,” I said, moving to my feet and stretching with a low groan that turned into a yawn.

  “It is,” Faye chuckled. “From what I remember of the Emperor’s schedule, he should be arriving at the Imperial City any day now, and could in fact already be there, if you want to find him.”

  “Now there’s a useful bit of information,” I said, and Faye appeared to blush from the compliment. While she had done her fair share of thanking me the night before, over the bond that she now had with us, I couldn’t help but feel, from her end, anyway, that she considered herself in my debt for saving her life and trusting her in the battle the day before.

  That and there was a good amount of guilt in her mind as well. There were a great many evil things that she was responsible for while under Abarat’s control, and it seemed like she wanted to atone for those mistakes. I didn’t share in the sentiment, seeing as how she was helping us as her already atoning, but if she felt it was owed, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that she couldn’t do it.

  “Very well, then, we have a plan, in the making anyway, and we know where to go to implement it,” Aliana said, standing as well, rolling her neck and stretching her wings with a low yawn. “I say that we pack up our camp, and I think that I can get us from here to the Imperial City in one portal. Especially after last night.”

  Another blush from Faye again, and this time, it had nothing to do with atonement. She and Aliana appeared to have bonded in a deeper way than any of us had with the fae woman, and the two seemed to really enjoy each other’s company. I had to like that.

  Lyth nodded and we started packing up the camp. I watched as she started to move away from us, toward the creek that we’d been getting our water from. I turned to Aliana and saw that her eyes were on the same sight. She nodded when she realized I was watching her, sighing softly.

  “We can handle the packing up of the camp,” she whispered, pressing a light kiss to my cheek. “She might need you now more than we do.”

  I returned her kiss and, strapping my own sword to my hip, moved out into the forest to see where Lyth had gone off to. It wasn’t far, and I could hear and feel small blasts of magical power being used not that far away.

  Coming in closer, I pulled my blade clear of its sheath, more out of instinct than anything else as I could see the elven… princess, or queen or whatever, standing in a small clearing. Her eyes were closed, and she was twirling her newly acquired sword in her hands like it was meant to be in her hands. I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it, gleaming in the morning sun as it was, still misting from the cold that emanated from it. I wasn’t ever going to consider trading it in for the sword that I had – I felt like my sword and I had been through too much together for me to just toss it aside – and yet there was still a part of me that yearned to have something that gorgeous in my own hands.

  Lyth moved again as I stepped into the clearing, apparently not realizing that I was there and swung the sword wildly at where I was standing. It had to be by accident, I mused, and yet when I raised my sword to block what I hoped was an inadvertent strike, I was almost knocked onto my ass from the power in it.

  Lyth’s eyes opened suddenly as she saw me standing there, holding my sword up to hers. She took a step back, lightly and daintily flicking the blade up in the air and catching it without a moment’s hesitation.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I… thought I needed some time alone with my thoughts.”

  “I can leave, if you’d rather I wasn’t here,” I said, looking back toward our campsite. I was actually at a loss over what it was that I could do here.

  “No, no, nothing like that,” she said with a chuckle. “Feel free to stay. It’s just… a lot of pressure is being laid on my shoulders. I know I can handle it, I’ve handled similar before, and yet… knowing that all our efforts here rely on whether or not I can break Abarat’s hold on the Emperor feels a little daunting.”

  “Talk to me, then,” I said, sheathing my sword again and moving over to a nearby fallen log, patting a spot next to me for her to join me on it. “You never did tell me what your relationship with Daryhan was. Do you feel like you could share it with me now? It’s not like I have that many secrets left from you.”

  She grinned over at me. “Yes, quite. And, well, it is complicated. There were more than a few royal elven families at the time. Don’t ask me to explain the history that goes into that particular detail, as we could be here all day and I still wouldn’t have scratched the surface of it. Either way, I remember Daryhan when I was younger, as he was my instructor. He and I shared a gift, one that you and I share as well, and the families thought that it would be best if we were to train together. He trained me in everything that he had been taught of course, and he used this sword to teach me. I remember wanting to have it for myself all those years ago. More recently, I remember feeling incredibly betrayed when he decided that he would be buried with the weapon instead of handing it off to me. Now I understand, I suppose, he always meant for me to have it. Eventually, anyway.”

  I nodded, leaning forward. It wasn’t often that I got to learn about this time in history from someone who had actually been there.

  “I suppose I saw him like something of an older brother,” she said, shaking her head. “I had no siblings of my own, and the way that he mentored me in his skills, all while understanding the volatile nature and unpredictability of being… well, I suppose you call it a rogue mage, though we had another word for it; Braethe-lythkore. A literal translation would be ‘creature of the lightning-storm, though I suppose it could just mean lightning-storm as well. Meant to be powerful, unpredictable, a force of nature that is never meant to be controlled or willed into submission.”

  “I do remember being difficult to control,” I thought aloud, chuckling, remembering Vis’ – my old master – attempt at holding me and training me to be something for him that I never would be.

  Lyth chuckled. “When the war started, Dary was the first to charge into battle. It was his duty, as King and wielder of this weapon to be there, fighting for elf-folk as well as fae-folk, I now realize. I was left behind to finish my studies with tutors that weren’t as versed as he was, either in the mystical arts or in how to handle me.”

  “It sounds like you loved him quite a bit,” I noted, leaning in closer.

  “I did, but it was never a romantic sort of love,” Lyth said softly, tilting her head, her eyes unfocused as they seemed to be seeing things from centuries past. “It never would have been for him, anyway. His tastes always laid in… well, his interest was mostly in the other men of our people. I don’t remember his taste extending to humans, though, but that is understandable, considering that he was at war with them at the time. For myself, I wasn’t allowed into battle until much, much later, after Dary had already passed on. I suppose that I never forgave him for that.”

  I smiled, reaching over and placing a hand lightly on her shoulder. “If he could see you now, I know that he would be proud of you. Not only in that way that an older brother would feel proud for his younger sister sort of way, but… well, you’re one of the most powerful mages that I’ve ever met, and you should know the magnitude of what I mean when I say that. He would see that, and… well, he would be proud, is what I mean. Not only of what you were, but because of what you’ve become. You have the power to do pretty much anything you set your mind to. The pressure is just another obstacle that he would know that you could get over.”

  She smiled over to me and placed her hand over mine, which was still on her shoulder. “I appreciate your words, Grant. And I appreciate everything that you’ve done for my people, and yours. I hope you know that, despite the differences that our kinds have faced in the past, I would not want to go into this fight with anyone else by my side.”

  “Well,
honestly, I think I would rather have Daryhan to me, so I think your mind isn’t quite right on that,” I replied with a cheeky grin, and she laughed, shaking her head.

  “Come on, we should head back,” Lyth said, her voice softer than before. “It doesn’t seem fair that the others are cleaning up our mess.”

  “Well, that does ring true for me, but you weren’t responsible for much of the mess that was caused, I think you’ll remember,” I said, standing up from the log and offering my hand to her to help her up. She graciously accepted, stepping in a little closer to me than I suddenly found comfortable. She smirked and moved around me, walking over to our camp.

  As we rejoined our camp, Aliana stood up from her duties, which appeared to be covering up any trace of the fire and really anything that we had left behind in the area, and walked over to me.

  “How did you fare?” she asked, tilting her head.

  “I think I got through to her,” I replied, moving over to help her with covering up the fire with dirt, leaves and branches. “Only time will tell if our confidence in her is well-placed.”

  “I think you’ll be surprised by what she can do,” Aliana whispered to me.

  14

  There was a little seed of dread starting to spread through the pit of my stomach. It wasn’t so much fear of finally facing the source of all our troubles thus far, Abarat, on top of meeting the emperor for the first time, as the man had been elevated almost to mythical status over my lifetime.

  There was an element of that too, I supposed but the real dread that I was feeling went into the thought that we would be pushing through a portal that I knew would be difficult for Aliana to open for us. I was worried about her. I was almost as worried about the rough ride that we were in for.

  I didn’t want to be selfish, just thinking about my own personal comfort when we were talking about something that could potentially endanger her life. I scowled, shaking my head and gripping my sword. Odd how that simple action was capable of instilling me with a little smidgen of courage.