Allies & Enemies

by Cheryl S Mackey

  Emaranthe watched her go. Jadeth’s pain was tangible. Perhaps she and Dehil had been more than friends, so this betrayal was all the more terrible a second time.

  Ivo sighed and ran a hand across his bleary eyes. The words, written in shaky letters, were few but important.

  Head due south for three days. Find the river and you will find Lureg’s camp on the plateau beyond. Be wary of your allies and enemies, for all is not as it seems.

  ~D

  Ivo let his hand fall to his side, the note fluttering angrily as it moved. “So much for honour and redemption. Now I don’t know whether to trust him or not.”

  Jadeth reappeared in the doorway and stood silhouetted against the glare of the morning suns. She crossed her arms and her stony glare reluctantly reached them.

  “We need that map he spoke of,” Emaranthe said. “If he spoke the truth about Rodon’s interest in it.”

  Jadeth frowned, her gaze on the petite Mage. “Maybe. Let me do your hair, Emaranthe.”

  Emaranthe opened her mouth to protest, but snapped it shut again. Arguing would be useless judging from the determined glare aimed at her. She sighed and dropped her gaze to the charred remains of the fire. The motion sent waves of loose blonde hair sifting and sliding, until it covered her face in a silken sheet, down to her waist.

  Ivo blinked as a swirl of flame seethed within the golden strands. He blinked again and the image was gone, but he traded puzzled looks with Jaeger, who had also seen the ghostly flames.

  Emaranthe looked up, wispy strands hiding her face. Her fiery gaze settled on the arrow bristling in the side of the tent.

  “There’s one problem,” she said.

  “What?” Ivo asked. He followed her pointing finger and inhaled.

  The arrow.

  Whose was it? None of them was a bowman. Dehil had borne twin sickle shaped daggers, but no bow.

  Allies... or enemies.

  “We need to move,” Jaeger growled. “We’re being hunted.”

  “Not until we fix her hair. We all know what can happen if left unbound during a fight. Come on, Emaranthe,” Jadeth gripped the tiny woman’s arm and led her to the back of the tent. A pointed glare at the men sent them stumbling out into the watery, cold morning light.

  “Come, brother, let’s find food and the horses. Perhaps Jaran will be a little more helpful today,” Ivo said. He turned to study the vast, rocky desert that stretched out below Shed-Akr and great beast’s bones.

  The beast, he figured, was as long as the greatest towers were tall in The Unknown City. Beyond it, the sand drifts rose and fell in waves between towering rock outcroppings. Here and there, a tall, gnarled palm tree bent against the shifting wind. The morning light, cast from two different directions, created interesting shadows of the skeleton and tower. It was as if great shadow wings stretched the length and breadth of the vast desert valley. They made their way to the main tent and entered without asking leave. It wouldn’t have mattered. It was empty.

  “Where have they gone?” Jaeger asked. He scowled at the dead fire and scattered cushions. Everyone had left in a hurry, but why?

  “Who knows? Come,” Ivo said. They retreated and found the entrance to the tower itself. It leaned at an awkward angle and the iron door was wedged shut. Beyond it, a ramshackle corral made with stones stood out against the flat white sand. Thankfully, it housed three sturdy horses.

  “I don’t like this, Ivo,” Jaeger muttered. He slid his axe free and scanned the deserted outpost. “Why would they have left?”

  The wind sharpened, scouring fine sand across the rocky ground. Blinded by the gritty air, Ivo raised a hand to shield his face. He turned into the wind, squinting, and studied the landscape with a keener eye. To the west, a heavy shroud darkened the entire sky, blotting out the sunlight as it came.

  “Sandstorm. A bad one and it’s heading this way,” Ivo said. “We need to move, now. Get the women. I’ll get that tower door open.”

  “Great,” Jaeger scowled. “Can you redirect it?”

  Ivo glared at his brother. “No, I do not interfere with the course of nature. You know this, brother. I no more ask you to change the high tides of the sea or bring the rain.”

  Jaeger frowned and shot the massive cloud of sand and debris laden air another glare before turning on his heel and hurrying to the tent.

  He flung the tent flap aside and entered, startling both women. Emaranthe stood motionless as Jadeth wound a strand of blonde hair into a braid.

  Jadeth’s nimble fingers halted. “What is it?”

  “Sandstorm. We need to move. Everyone else has already left,” Jaeger grabbed his gauntlets and dragged them on. His helm followed next, shadowing his gaze within its depths. He reached for his brother’s gear. “We can shelter in the tower. Ivo’s opening it now.”

  Jadeth dropped the strand of hair and it unraveled instantly. Emaranthe swept the tangle of blonde hair and braids away from her face, not caring that it was left undone.

  She asked, “Will the tower hold?”

  Jaeger frowned. “I don’t know. Hurry!”

  Ivo ripped the tent flap aside and blocked out the rapidly dwindling light. The sandstorm had surged closer, turning daylight into reddish darkness. The tent shuddered.

  “Are you ready?” he asked. His gaze fell on Emaranthe, once again hidden within the robes and cloak. Her eyes glowed in the gloom, staring right back.

  “Here’s your gear,” Jaeger tossed Ivo’s helm and gauntlets to him and reached for his shield. “We’ll have to run for it.”

  Jadeth ducked past Ivo and vanished into the surging wall of dust. Ivo spun on his heels and swung Emaranthe up into his arms. She gasped, startled, and stiffened her spine at being manhandled. Her lips parted, ready to scold, but a somber green glare from within the depths of Ivo’s helm stilled the words.

  “Thank you,” Emaranthe said. She relaxed against him and wound thin arms around his neck. His helm jerked slightly and green glittered in the depths, but he said nothing before turning and running from the tent.

  The wind tore at their clothing and tugged on their hair. Debris and dust coated tongues and scoured skin. Eyes burned. Mouths tasted dirt and flecks of blood. Emaranthe’s hood tore free and her hair billowed across Ivo’s chest. It hid her face, snagged on the screaming wind like a pale banner.

  Eyes closed against the stinging sand and howling wind, Emaranthe jostled in Ivo’s arms as he stumbled forward with brute determination. His strong arms, wrapped in armor, shielded and sheltered her the best he could. She rested her cheek against Ivo’s chest, the iron cold against her scoured skin. Beyond her cloud of hair, the wind screamed, blinding all sense of sight and sound.

  Jadeth leaned into the wind. Sand scraped grooves in her skin, drawing dots of blood. Eyes closed against the assault, she jerked when something tangled about her ankles. She looked down in time to see a scrap of off white cloth whip free from her left foot and dance away. Something about the fragile length of fabric held her attention as it tossed and fluttered along the rocks. It snagged on something and whipped wildly against it, a pennant of white amidst a sea of reddish-brown haze.

  An arm materialized; and fingers, long and sun browned, reached out of the wall of debris, and plucked it free. Jadeth stumbled, startled.

  The rest of the arm appeared, attached to a sleekly muscled, willowy figure. She stood out against the backdrop of howling wind and sand, a blinding flare of red and white, clutching the cloth. Jadeth swallowed.

  Red hair, wild and curly, seethed in the air around the strange woman, framing her figure in scarlet fire. As if sensing Jadeth’s stunned regard, the woman smiled and lifted the scrap of cloth as if offering it to the wind. It fluttered wildly in the woman’s fingers.

  “What is that? Who are you?” Jadeth called out. She stumbled toward the odd scene playing out in the red-brown haze. She blinked her stinging eyes and wondered if she was hallucinating.

  As if the red headed woman had heard her thought
s, a smile tipped one corner of her lips up into a sad smile. The woman ignored the question, turned back to the wall of howling debris, and vanished.

  “Jadeth, come on!” Jaeger called out from somewhere ahead.

  Jadeth jerked to awareness and blinked the sand from her reddened eyes. Nothing but dust and rock roiled on the violent wind. The woman and the scrap of cloth were gone as if they had never existed. She rushed after the rest of the group. They huddled around the door of the tower, all frowning.

  “What were you doing?” Jaeger asked. He met her a few yards before she reached the group and frowned at the Healer. Her face was pale, her breathing ragged. Wild panic dulled her usually vivid gaze. “Did you get lost in the haze?”

  “I tripped,” Jadeth stammered. She resisted the urge to look over her shoulder. She knew it would do no good. Hallucination or not, what she had seen was impossible. She swallowed, wincing, when the sand scratched her throat. “I thought I saw something; but it must’ve been the sand trying to carve my eyeballs from their sockets. Never mind, let’s get out of this wind.” She rushed past him, careful not to meet his puzzled gaze.

  Ivo wrenched the door off the frame with one hand and they rushed inside. As one, they collapsed to their knees at the center of the round room. The sudden quiet from the absence of the wind and sand was a shock. Rocks and debris plinked against the iron-armored tower. Panting, they struggled to breath and swallow with dust coated tongues and lungs.

  “Well, I never thought I’d be glad to see the inside of this place,” Jaeger grumbled. He stumbled to his feet and dusted his armor off. A fine layer of brown covered all of them.

  “At least we have shelter,” Ivo said. He tugged Emaranthe's thick strands of hair from around his neck. “It could have been worse.”

  He eased her to the cold floor and stumbled to the broken door, his gait suspiciously uncoordinated with her gaze following him. He lifted the large door and fitted back into place as if it were made of nothing.

  “How are we going to get to the far south without horses?” Emaranthe whispered from beneath her hair. With a practiced flicked of her head, it smoothed into a heavy fall down her back. “They will not have survived this before the end.”

  “We will manage,” Jadeth sighed. She sank back against the wall and studied the room. It was wide, circular, windowless, and empty but for a single staircase spiraling along the wall upward through a gap to another floor. The metal shuddered and a small blast of sand burst through the small gap between the door and the frame. “But first we need to survive.”

  “Emaranthe?” Ivo gestured to the battered door. “Can you lock it for us?”

  A fireball sailed over his shoulder and burst against the remaining hinge. Heat waves bent the air and the metal flared red-hot. The iron melted, holding the abused door shut.

  “Let’s see what’s here,” Jaeger eyed the stairway made entirely of beast bones. He wondered just what creature had unwillingly donated them. “I’ll go up first.”

  “Be cautious,” Ivo warned. “Come on.”

  With Jaeger in the lead and Emaranthe’s tiny fire lamp hovering above her palm, they crept up the narrow staircase. The bone steps, carved into rough planks, creaked beneath their feet. Their shadows spiraled up the wall beside them, their shapes looming far larger than life.

  The entrance to the floor above was a narrow hole. Jaeger hesitated beneath it, straining to listen over the wind scouring sand across metal. Finally, he lunged through the opening and gained the floor above. The others followed on his heels, wary and watchful in the pitch-black room.

  The shivering lamplight didn’t reach the edges of the circular room, leaving the walls bathed in darkness. The metal moaned, scraped, and creaked under the strain of the storm outside.

  Emaranthe lifted a trembling arm higher. The puddle of light skated up one curved metal wall. A mass at its base, dark and shrouded, stirred.

  A voice, gravelly and deep, set nerves on edge and weapons at hand.

  “You found me.”

  Shadows of axes, swords, and hammers bounced off the rounded walls as Emaranthe’s hand fell in shock. Her startled cry blended into the snarls and growls of Ivo and Jaeger. Sharp points bristled with deadly precision at the stranger.

  The bundle of cloth shifted and uncurled until it stood upright. Pupils the color of starlight, cold and silvery, gleamed within a hooded cloak. Standing, the stranger stood nearly as tall as the room, and unarmored was just as muscular as the warrior brothers.

  “That’s not possible!” Jadeth said, her voice barely louder than the howl of the wind on metal. “You shouldn’t exist!”

  Starlit eyes cut through the gloom to land on her.

  “You shouldn’t judge, She-Elf,” he said. His gaze swept the rest of the group.

  “Who are you?” Ivo stepped forward, his gaze hard. “What are—”

  “Gabaran?” Emaranthe cried, drowning out Ivo’s words. Her smile blazed brighter than her half-forgotten lamp. It hovered midair, at the center of the half circle formed by the stunned companions.

  “Emaranthe,” Gabaran chuckled, showing very sharp, very white teeth. “We meet once more.”

  Emaranthe darted across the circular room and barreled into the stranger with a laugh. They hugged warmly, leaving the three standing in stunned silence.

  Ivo’s face darkened. His pulse pounded in his temples. Anger melted away all reason and caution as his blood boiled within his flesh. He growled and lunged, one hand outstretched to rescue the foolish Mage from the dangerous stranger, the other outstretched to skewer him with his great sword.

  Emaranthe spun and flung herself away from one hand and in front of the other, arms raised to halt him.

  “No!” she cried out. “Please!”

  The razor sharp blade halted centimeters from her bared throat. It hovered for a long moment, wavering just below the delicate line of her jaw. Ivo froze, horror draining the strength from his fingers. The sword clattered to the floor.

  “No, Ivo,” Emaranthe whispered. She stepped closer to him, hands still raised. Her worn leather boot collided with the heavy weapon and it spun like a broken compass for a moment. His gaze wavered between her uplifted face and the sword that had nearly severed it from her neck.

  Ivo swallowed, the anger raging through him now a nauseating fear. Shaking hands dragged off the helm hiding his chiseled face. Pain tightened his full lips to a white line and turned his green eyes brittle.

  “He’s an old friend, Ivo,” she whispered only to him when his gaze finally met hers, vibrant gold and pained green. “We are as siblings; he is the brother of my heart.”

  The Exile glared at Ivo, his teeth bared. “Little Sister?”

  “Why?” Ivo asked. He ignored the towering Elf, his attention set on Emaranthe. His voice echoed, flat and emotionless, in the stunned silence reigning the room. Not even the raging wind dared intrude.

  She blinked and the fiery glow faded from her wide gaze. “Why what?”

  “Why did you step in front of my sword,” Ivo whispered. “I could have killed you.”

  The lines at the corners of his eyes deepened, and his lips twisted in despair.

  “You wouldn’t have. You didn’t,” Emaranthe smiled broadly, but her lips trembled and somewhere in her chest, something hollow ached. “I trust you.”

  “You shouldn’t,” Ivo growled. He spun on his heel and strode away, his boots clanking against the cold, unfeeling iron. He vanished down the staircase in the dark.

  “Ivo?” Emaranthe called out after him, her soft voice breaking. “Wait!”

  “Let him go,” Jaeger stepped forward, his cool gaze chips of ice. His breath frosted the air. “What is going on? I take it you know each other?”

  “You called her ‘Little Sister’?” Jadeth added before the giant Elf could reply. She walked around Jaeger, shivering when the clammy air touched her skin. Scanning the giant figure, her eyebrows knit in confusion, she frowned. “But you are not possib
le. Your tribe...”

  “Vanished,” Gabaran supplied, his graying eyebrows notching upwards. Jadeth flushed. The Tevu-Anat and her people, the forest dwelling Eideili, had always been at odds. Greatly differing in stature and culture, it would have been unthinkable for both races of Elves to be in the same room together even before the Fall and subsequent Exile.

  “Yes, your tribe vanished a thousand years ago and was never heard from again. Your race was considered lost,” she said. “It was said your people followed a different god.”

  Starlit eyes landed on the wary warrior, then down to Emaranthe who was still staring into the dark after Ivo. Her hunched shoulders spoke volumes to an Elf who had walked the world for twelve thousand years.

  He flung his hood back, and Jadeth and Jaeger jerked in surprise. Long hair, once dark, but now liberally threaded with snow-white strands, framed a face that had seen a hard life. Narrow ears, notched from battle, flicked restlessly. Hardened, road weary, and stern, Gabaran wore his age, like a badge. Grizzled eyebrows hovered in amusement above striking dark blue eyes, the centers of which were silver white, not black. His mouth tightened as if to give in to a smile was treason.

  Gabaran snorted and turned away, removing his cloak as he did. Jadeth’s eyes widened as his broad chest and well-muscled torso strained against the simple cloth tunic, further proof of the differences between her smaller, leaner, people and his.

  “And we’ve been looking for her ever since,” Gabaran replied. He sank to the floor with a sigh and let his head drop back against the cold metal. The hollow thud echoed, stirring Emaranthe into motion at last. She turned and sat, her gaze hidden by the long, pale fall of her hair.

  “I don’t understand. Her?” Jaeger stowed his axe, finally convinced that the mysterious Elf was not a foe. Yet. “Why would you look for a different god?”

  “Because she is the god who can control fate; and you have to admit, we could use a little bit of that right now,” Gabaran said. He closed his eyes, the lines at their corners etched deeply in his travel-weathered face. “She appears across time and space to various people of all races as a female with red hair and exotic clothing. Her eyes are dark and her skin fair. Her words can turn back tides or use them to sink a city.”