Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1)

by Stephan Morse

“That bad?” I asked.

  “That bad.” Thomas agreed.

  “We need to find Arnold.” It felt like every few seconds my goals shifted between finding Evan for myself, and finding Evan for Arnold. It was just a matter of which issue came up first.

  “Maybe you’ll have better luck getting it out of Evan than we did,” Julianne said.

  “You tried?”

  “Tried being the key word. I don’t know what you and the elf have going on, but I would have choked the shit out of that weedbag if I thought it’d solve anything.” Julianne had a tight grip on her jacket.

  “He should answer me.” About a lot of things. If I sorted out Arnold first, then we’d have all the time in the world to talk about the other stuff.

  “You were always good at answers.” She sounded proud.

  “Except for Francis.” Thomas put a hand in the air to count the point against me.

  I flipped the lid next to me, someone had packed away a small army’s worth of food. The water bottles were shoved in the bottom. Not a drop of alcohol of course.

  “Figured you two wouldn’t say no to some backup food.” Thomas sounded proud of himself for predicting our need for food.

  “Backup?” I asked.

  “It took us a few days to find him last time, you don’t think he’s going to be out and waiting for us, do you?” He flipped suddenly to being upset. Thomas had every right, wolves were master trackers by nature. Being eluded in their own woods was downright insulting.

  “Jay can track him.” Julianne brought up a good point. Maybe it was time for a thorough search.

  “Oh, really? I thought that was some bull that you’d made up to sound impressive.”

  “Nope. Jay’s a full-fledged tracker.” Julianne responded to her brother’s doubt.

  “Aren’t they rare?”

  My hearing fled the area shortly after. A moment later I was back and blinked a few times. It was hard to tell how long I’d been gone, but the other two were clearly in different positions. Julianne’s brother was only a few feet away staring at my face intensely.

  “Holy shit.” Thomas was the first to say anything.

  “He’s back then? He always acts confused to use his eyes.”

  “Found Evan.” I tried to deviate the conversation away from how closely Julianne watched me over the years.

  “Where?” Thomas asked.

  “North.” My head shook slowly trying to sort things out. “With another elf, male.” In case they thought it was Candy. “Definitely older.” Even my eyes could tell the other one had been alive for a long time. His hair practically pure white. That meant he was probably well into his second century.

  “Evan has help?” Julianne asked.

  “I guess.” I unwrapped a sandwich from the cooler.

  “Fuck.” Thomas banged a hand against the side of the truck. “That old man was scary enough the first time.”

  Instead of answering him I concentrated on eating the food in front of me. It wouldn’t do if I pointed out how long ago I could have solved this.

  “We’ll go talk to Evan and figure it out.” Julianne offered.

  The wrapper from my sandwich was thrown into the bed of the truck. With one arm, I shrugged on my jacket and started towards where I had seen Evan.

  It would be nightfall by the time we caught up. Candy would probably be there long before us. Her affinity for the trees was a huge advantage. I could close my eyes and practically see her form dashing through the trees. Dainty feet skipped along the ground while barely making contact.

  Then there was Evan. I didn’t tell the others, but when I tracked him down the elf had looked unaware. His body was completely out of it. Just like at Julianne’s house. The old elf tended to him by pouring liquid down his throat and muttering in a language that sounded like wind chimes left along an ocean cliffside.

  Chapter 18 – Elf, Wolf, Human, Vampire?

  The siblings never stopped talking. Neither one showed any fear as we walked through the woods. They had probably roamed pack lands most of their lives. Thomas would smell any remaining predators with ease. Their rambling became background noise while I considered the connections between the number of stars in the sky and trees in this forest.

  Building a link to Candy and Evan was growing increasingly easy. Both multicolored cords snapped together without an ounce of effort. Each had differences in how they presented. Evan’s thread was weak and barely pulsed. Candy’s thrummed with irritation and panic.

  The female elf was far, far ahead of us. Each attempt at connection would result in her pausing. These connections weren’t just a tentative thing. They were providing intense amounts of feedback.

  I felt a tiny hand grip over her chest. A sharp rock dug into Candy’s palm. A weight pressed against the object as she barely avoided buckling. Moments later the elf splashed water over her face. The chill of liquid sent shivers all over that I had no way of explaining to Julianne.

  An hour later we found a stream. We were catching up. Nearby was a boulder that had been drug up from the earth’s depths to sit alone in the riverbed. I had felt both the water and rock well before seeing them. My palm pressed into the same position that Candy’s had from my tracking sensations.

  “She’s been through here,” I said.

  “How do you know?” Thomas asked behind me. He sniffed the air while looking around.

  “I told you, he’s my own personal tracker,” Julianne grunted as she stepped across the stream.

  “Yeah, I heard he’d flaked out and left.” Thomas remained shirtless but was all human right now.

  “Shush, there’s some stuff there you don’t want to get mixed up in.” The tiny bartender said.

  “Drama? How bad? I don’t need details, give me a number on a scale of Ricky’s wife to Little Bob’s high school reunion.”

  “At least a seven, maybe an eight.” She sounded thoughtful about it. Her face wasn’t visible right now as the tiny Indian woman was behind me.

  “So not a contender for Drew’s sudden countdown embarrassment.” Thomas continued his banter with an entertained grin. He was parallel with me as we stalked towards Evan’s hide away.

  “Not quite.” Julianne laughed.

  I walked on and ignored them. My brain was only half in the now anyway. Everything was strangely out of focus. A fog had settled over my perceptions. Moments became hard to pick out. There was a wall of sensations pouring back from both elves.

  My thoughts circled through the same pattern constantly since returning home weeks ago. Answers would be within reach regarding who or what I was. My mind would compare the current Jay to the prior. An itch would happen on my arm and I would end up distracted.

  Feet moved forward with an absent-minded hustle. My senses that split across the miles to Evan were reporting small changes. Occasionally he shook and thrashed. Other times he lay there barely breathing. The older silver-haired elf that had been caring for him was somewhere else.

  Continued tactile feedback came in. Candy had halted up ahead. She was very close to Evan now. We, the siblings and I, were nearly a step behind now too.

  Approaching nightfall, during that fleeting dance between a parting sun and the horizon’s edge, a tree branch appeared in front of my face. Unlike other branches, this one was new. My senses snapped back together with a rush of panic.

  Julianne was shouting. Thomas growled and ran past. Another chunk of wood sunk into the trunk right in front of the brother. He displayed better sense than I and took cover behind a tree.

  “Hold it right there.” The voice sounded almost like a cowboy. There was far more than a hint of western to it. “Close enough for you all, I think.”

  My eyes gradually focused on the shaft of wood I had nearly been penetrated by. The item itself was firmly lodged into the tree trunk and oddly shaped. I tried to comprehend the details. There was a feathered end attached to the thinly carved shaft. Its angle was odd as it jutted from the tree.

  He
ll. Someone or something had actually shot at me with an arrow. I had nearly been shafted and still barely returned to my senses.

  “Jay, for the love of God, back up.” Julianne’s hiss made it through my addled brain. I looked around trying to figure out if the voice and the arrow had come from the silver-haired elf.

  “Are you with Evan? The one feeding him liquid from a leaf? One sip at a time?” I shouted. My eyes weren’t focusing all that well. The last few hours had been spent staggering forward while seeing and feeling a completely different place from my body.

  There was silence.

  “Is your hair silver?” I tried again. Maybe by announcing what I had seen while tracking Evan, things would go smoother.

  “Who are you? Wolves here to steal my boy away again?” The other man yelled. His voice seemed to echo through the trees.

  “I need to speak to Evan!” I couldn’t tell if all this shouting was going in the right direction. The person who shot at us had to be the other elf. It had to be.

  “It ain’t happening. He’s come back from you all nearly broken not once, but twice now.” The elf's accent was intense. “You all can scoot back to where ever you came from.”

  Going home wasn’t an option. Shouting that I was a Lord would be dangerous. Candy affirmed rather explicitly that mentioning a Lord around elves was tied to being sacrificed. That advice seemed sound even though she was dead set on getting to Evan before I did.

  “Julie, help out here.” Thomas motioned.

  “I don’t know what to do.” Julianne was keeping her head firmly planted behind the tree she’d picked to huddle at.

  “Didn’t the pack find him out here?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but they slipped past this guy. Might not have been a good idea.” Julianne said.

  “You all can just turn about those heels and head home.” The western sounding elf yelled. “Go on, get!”

  “Not without answers!” Julianne yelled back at him. “Tell us where Arnold Regious is and I’ll happily go away.”

  Three arrows sprouted on a tree near us. Each one was further to the right. The man must be running around to get a better angle on us. I shoved Julianne further around the edge of the tree in time to see another shaft embed itself where she had been.

  “Don’t ask about Arnold.” I tried to keep my voice low.

  “Your buddy there has the right idea.” The unknown person was closer and had definitely switched locations.

  “Ask Evan who I am, he’ll vouch for us!” I roared back. Evan wanted us out here, me anyway. The first few shots had the feeling of warning shots.

  “I don’t like this.” Thomas was behind another tree nearby.

  “Feel free to charge out there,” Julianne responded.

  “And get shot in the eye? I’ve read the history books, during the civil war elves shot wolves through the eye sockets.” I could see his hands waving about from here. “Then while they were down and blind, finished them with silver.”

  My eyes shut while they complained at each other about their limited choices. Thomas was right, charging out there wouldn’t work. Elves at range had always held the advantage. This one also had the home court. This was a bad scene all the way around.

  Evan had to wake up. He was able to sense if I called for him and that might solve our problem. Tactile senses barely started to expand out when my body automatically dodged another shaft.

  “I can wait here all night,” He said. I could hear the chewing tobacco in his thick accent.

  “Jay, what’s the call?” Julianne asked.

  “Shush.” I closed my eyes tight and pressed my head to the tree as I hugged what little cover we had. Julianne hunkered nearby, hiding behind me.

  “Jay?” Her words crawled at me from miles away. My senses had reached out to Evan, who lay on the ground completely still. Mats of forest debris were piled around him. One young tree was nearby, dirt freshly disturbed.

  I could feel Evan muttering to himself. Words sunk into plants and trees swaddling the sound. Mother? Picking up words in a new environment was tough.

  “Evan!” My voice gave an odd double echo, one inside my head, once in the forest where my body and Julianne huddled.

  “Evan answer me!” I demanded.

  The elf stirred a bit. His eyes were unfocused and bloodshot.

  “Evan wake up!”

  I concentrated on him. Part of me tried to reach across the distance to shake him. Evan had said I was his Lord, Candy had said I should be able to call him back. Neither one explained what that meant. Could I pull at him like I had with the rabbit? If I was a Lord, did that make him a vassal?

  “Evan! I command you to wake up!” I tried shouting at him. His elven name might have garnered a reaction. Wait, Evan had said that an awakening was needed. Blood had worked the first time.

  “Listen, you kin stealing igit, the next shot won’t be a warning!” In the background the older elf yelled.

  My eyesight snapped back to reality. It took an act of will to keep my head still and try to focus quickly. Evan was a ways north, but if I ran, maybe I could make it to him. A little bit of blood and a few seconds, then he’d come back to again.

  “Dear god, he’s going to kill us.” Julianne was muttering next to me.

  “What?”

  “I should never have come out here.” She wasn’t paying attention. “I should have stayed at home where it was quiet.”

  “Julie, it’ll be okay. We just need to back out, we can call pack in for the rest of it.” Thomas was nodding briskly while talking.

  “We won’t get away, didn’t you hear him? He’s not firing warning shots anymore, and he’s waiting there for us to stick our heads out.” Julianne was huddled against the side of the tree, her knees pulled up to her chest.

  “Thomas?” I whispered.

  “You back from your fucking trip?” The brother said.

  “I know where Evan is.”

  “That’s fantastic. Did you learn the magic password to get past the gatekeeper over there?” Thomas stuck his head out a little too far and another shaft of carved wood flew past. He swallowed and both eyebrows pinched together. “Because we could really use a secret code, or handshake, or anything.”

  “Do you think he and Evan have a secret code?” Julianne had recovered instantly in the light of her brother’s playful commentary.

  “An all clear call sign?” Julianne was sweating. I could feel her heart speeding along compared to the normal, calm woman behind a bar counter.

  “We could tie a white flag to one of the arrows.” Thomas was slowly gaining composure. The lingering sensations of my tracking abilities were providing all sorts of extra details.

  “Wave it in the air,” She said.

  “Thomas.” I tried to interrupt them.

  “You got your underwear on still?” He was caught up with his banter.

  “Not white anymore,” Julianne said. She wiped at her forehead and wasn’t making eye contact with either of us.

  “I’ll settle for red.” The elf called out from a distance.

  “Thomas!” I was trying to keep quiet. Elves had different ears, but their hearing wasn’t exceptional. Thomas should be able to hear me if I could get a word in.

  “Just talk, he’s listening,” Julianne whispered next to me. Her head shook and then nodded.

  “Don’t have red yet!” Thomas yelled back. He motioned his hands at me to get on with it. I could see him staring at Julianne with a worried expression. His back rolled as he stayed behind his tree.

  “I know where Evan is. I’ll run. I need a distraction.” My voice was hushed.

  “You really want to risk our lives on Evan pulling through?” Julianne said. Her brother looked at me briefly then shook his head.

  “Not a risk, Thomas can heal right?” I protested.

  “So can you. Doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.” Julianne whispered back to me. She sounded offended at me using her brother as a defensive screen for arrows. />
  “Got another option?” I glared at her. The siblings shared a glance and Thomas shrugged.

  “No,” He said.

  Julianne took a deep breath. “Countdown?” Thomas nodded back. “From three, break on zero.” She put a hand on my back and looked up. “I’ll cover my brother as much as I can.”

  “With what?” I asked.

  Julianne pulled out a small handgun. I whistled.

  “Only a few shots, short range, but it might scare him.”

  “When did you get that?”

  “When I stopped by the bar.” She’d picked up the handgun after dealing with Daniel.

  “Who wants the next shot? I’m open to requests, legs, arms, lungs, tell me where you poachers want ’em.”

  “I’d prefer you air ball all of them!” Thomas yelled back. He was looking directly at me, though. One hand was held up with three fingers.

  “Wait.” I lifted my shirt and displayed the makeshift belt. Even after changing clothes at Kahina’s the chain loops had stayed with me. My hands paused their fumbling as it occurred to me that Candy hadn't cared about the iron during our earlier adventures. How had she managed to get my pants off? Maybe I had helped the elf a bit?

  “What's that?” Thomas asked.

  “Cold iron.” I handed the metal over to Thomas.

  He nodded and wound the links around one hand. Julianne nodded next. They both started a countdown. I closed both eyes and tried to extend my senses. Their fingers started with three.

  There was the vaguest sense of leaves being brushed aside. Fingers scraping past each other as one slowly closed. We were down to two.

  Julianne tensed near me and lifted her gun up with both hands. The metal was warm and lightweight. Her breath came in short gulps and there was a rapid rate to her pulse. Another of Thomas’ fingers closed to reach one.

  I opened my eyes and looked right at Thomas. His back twitched once, twice, then the final finger closed downward. It was go time.

  Thomas shot out from behind the tree. Julianne came out at the same time, knowing her brother’s speed better than I. There was a bang from her gun that startled me into motion. My feet launched off towards Evan.