by Logan Jacobs
A flash of blue fire erupted from somewhere up ahead, and I knew that meant there was at least one elven soldier with magic. I heard the screams of the humans that his fire scorched, but I couldn’t pinpoint his location right away, so instead, I focused my attention on all the elves until they froze in place again.
It wouldn’t last long, but I looked around the crowd until I spotted Ava. The blonde assassin had started to scan the fight, too, but she was so focused that she didn’t even return my gaze. Instead, she smiled when she spotted her target, notched another arrow, and then let it fly.
As soon as the elves all began to move again, I saw another ball of blue fire erupt, but Ava had successfully found the caster, so this time, the sphere of energy flew straight up into the air and exploded overhead like fireworks. When no more fireballs appeared in the battle around us, I figured that the caster was good and dead, and that the rest of the elven magic users must be somewhere else inside the city.
Or with any luck, they might already be dead.
More and more elves continued to fall before us, and everywhere I looked, I saw how well the Elite soldiers performed. Ava had really trained them well, so they were able to move like both assassins and soldiers. They could attack someone outright, but they could also move with stealth and swiftness, so they were a surprising match for the well-trained elven soldiers.
Of course, it also helped that every so often, I was able to freeze the elves just long enough for my forces to catch their breaths.
But even though I felt sure that we would win, and even though the elves continued to fall to our swords, my soldiers began to fall before the elves, too. The elves were incredibly strong and fast, and my troops were tired from the two cities that we had already conquered today. But while our forces seemed pretty evenly matched, I realized that the elves themselves looked tired and scared, and I knew that I could force them into a surrender.
I just needed to kill their commander first, so when I spotted a bright red cloak up ahead, I turned to Dar and Penny.
“Help me clear a path!” I shouted to my friends.
My halfling friend ripped his dagger out of an elf’s cheekbone, Penny finished him off with a blade all the way through his eye and into his brains, and then they both moved forward to stand at my sides.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Penny said as she looked up at me with her fierce green eyes.
I held my shield up directly in front of me, Dar and Penny stood on either side of me, and then we pushed forward through the crowd of soldiers together. Every few seconds, I looked over my shield to check the position of the commander, and then I ducked back down and pushed forward.
Dar and Penny made sure that no soldiers attacked me from the back while I pushed forward. When I was close enough to the commander to strike, I dropped the shield, froze everything around me again, and raised my sword against the cowardly elf.
The moment he came back to consciousness, he found my sword right in front of his face. He followed the blade all the way back to my hand, raised his gaze to my face, and then looked like his face was torn between a sneer and a plea for mercy.
“One more chance,” I growled.
“Fuck you, human,” the elven commander snarled.
“Suit yourself,” I said, just before I swung the massive battle-sword straight at his nose.
I expected the commander to block my blow or counter it, or I thought that he would at least duck and try to run away again, but instead, he couldn’t react in time to stop me. My sword just carved through his helmet, through his nose, and then into both eye sockets so they popped like broken egg yolks that then dribbled down my blade.
As soon as I pulled my sword out of his skull, the elven commander wobbled and then dropped limply to the ground.
“Talk about more bark than bite,” Penny snickered.
I turned to the next closest elf to continue my onslaught. He wore the insignia of the unit’s second-in-command, so I figured that he was the logical next target, but as soon as I moved toward him, he glanced over my shoulder at his fallen commander.
Immediately, the second-in-command threw down his weapons, raised his hands up into the air, and dropped to his knees.
“We surrender!” he shouted. “Sound the surrender!”
From somewhere further back in the crowd of elven soldiers, one of them raised the battle horn to his lips and blew the single long blast that signaled surrender. As the elves all started to throw down their weapons, I straightened up to look around and to make sure that none of my troops disobeyed my orders to show mercy.
But once the elves raised their hands up into the air, all of my troops let their weapons fall back to their sides. One of the unit commanders began to usher the elves into neat rows in order to take them prisoner, so when I saw that everything was under control, I turned back toward the second-in-command.
“You’re really not going to kill us?” the day elf whispered.
“I’ll only kill you if you attack me again,” I said, “but otherwise, you’ve surrendered, and I respect that.”
“Wh-why?” the elf stuttered.
“Because I’m not interested in complete genocide,” I said as I pulled the soldier to his feet. “If you do what I tell you, you and your soldiers will all be spared and treated well, but if you try to resist or rebel, then I think you can guess your fate.”
The second-in-command nodded, bowed his head, and then looked back up at me.
“Then we are your prisoners,” the day elf said.
After I gave orders for the human guards to take all the elves prisoner and watch them until I made sure that the city was ours, I took Dar, Penny, Ava, and the Elite with me to comb through the rest of the streets for any signs of other soldiers who might still be alive.
We ran into a few stray elven soldiers here and there, but the ones who didn’t surrender were quickly overwhelmed and killed. Before too long, we had completely cleared the marbled section of the city, so then it was time to move on to the rest of the Blood City and see how Clodia and Leif had done with the rest of my troops.
Our forces met up again halfway between the portal and the main gate. Clodia looked more than pleased with herself, so that was my first clue that their battle had gone well, but then Leif grinned and nodded when he saw me.
“Blood City is ours,” the big gladiator said as he clasped my hand.
“The elves were quite surprised to find us inside their city instead of outside it,” Clodia added, “so they didn’t quite know how to react.”
“Any prisoners?” Dar asked.
“Only a few soldiers,” Leif replied. “Most of them fought to the death, but we have a number of nobles and other civilian elves in custody.”
“Perfect,” I said. “We haven’t gone to the temple yet to check on everything there, but since they didn’t rush out into battle to help their friends, I have a feeling the priests and priestesses have decided to try to hide and wait things out.”
“That’s what they did in the Capital,” Leif said. “After we took all the elven nobles prisoner, we were finally able to go to the temple, but by then, the priestesses had all locked themselves inside and warded the doors with magic, so I placed men all around the temple to make sure that no one could get out.”
“That’s what I would have done,” I said. “There’s no reason to spend all our energy trying to get inside the temple, when the priestesses might just starve themselves to death and do our job for us.”
“Or maybe the priestesses and priests here all drank the wine and poisoned themselves before any of this even began,” Ava pointed out.
“That’s also possible,” I laughed. “But other than the temple, my only real question is if you saw Tevian.”
“Actually, no,” Clodia said as she tapped a bloody finger against her bottom lip. “He wasn’t anywhere that we could find, he’s not among any of the surrendered prisoners, and he certainly didn’t lead the charge against us.”
“Then where the fuck is he?” Penny demanded.
“Maybe he’s holed himself up somewhere like the priestesses,” Dar suggested.
“Tevian is a fucking bastard, but he’s not a coward,” I said. “But I would very much like to know where he is because until we do, I won’t feel like the Blood City is really ours.”
“I know his address in the Blood City,” Clodia said. “At least, it was his address the last time he stayed here.”
“Good, let’s go make a house call,” I said.
“The temple isn’t on the way,” Clodia said, “so would you like to go there or to Tevian’s house first?”
“Definitely Tevian’s house,” I said. “If he’s still in town, I need eyes on him as soon as possible.”
“Then perhaps after we check on Tevian,” Clodia said, “we can go to the temple and see if those fools have all literally drunk themselves to death.”
“That’s the plan,” I said. “Leif, you take charge of all the prisoners and get them organized and locked away.”
“Will do,” the big man replied. “Clodia already showed me where the garrison and the jails are, and they’re massive enough to hold pretty much everyone. I can meet you at the garrison when you’ve finished with Tevian.”
“You can also use my estate in town if you need extra space,” the elven guild master said.
As Leif took charge of the prisoners and began to march them all toward the jails, I let Clodia lead the way toward Tevian’s house, while Ava, Penny, and Dar continued to follow right behind me.
When we reached it, I saw that it was a very modest house compared to Tevian’s huge estate in the Gold City, but I guessed that real estate was a little harder to come by in the elven capital. It was only one story, and there was no wall or even a fence around the place. In fact, the roof even looked like it had a few patched-up holes in it, and I was a little surprised that this was all Tevian was able to afford.
The front door of the small house was already halfway open, so I pulled out my sword and cautiously stepped inside. As soon as I entered the house, I knew he wasn’t here. The place had been cleaned out, and from the mess he’d left behind, it looked like the night elf had been in a hurry.
Tevian was already gone.
Chapter 4
“Fuck,” I muttered just as my friends entered the house behind me.
“If he’s here, I’ll find him,” Ava growled, and then she disappeared to check out the rest of the rooms in the small house.
“I think he’s long gone,” I said, “but what I really want to know is why… and when exactly he left.”
“Why don’t we ask the elves?” Penny suggested. “I know Tevian kind of kept to himself, but he is a fucking general, so surely he told some other soldier about his plans.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said. “I think we’ll go ahead and join Leif at the garrison before we check on the temple. I’d like to see if any of the elven soldiers feel talkative.”
“And if they don’t?” Clodia asked as she toyed with a small spark of blue fire in between her fingers.
“Then we’ll figure something else out,” I said. “We won’t torture them, Clodia, if that’s what you want to know.”
“That’s disappointing,” the guild master sighed. “Torture can be such fun.”
“It also doesn’t produce reliable information,” I said. “People will say anything, and there’s no way to tell for sure whether or not it’s true. Plus, these people surrendered to me, and I gave them my word that they would be safe if they stick to my rules.”
“I suppose,” Clodia said. “Perhaps one of them will be eager to be of service to their new king. If any of them are smart, they certainly will be.”
Ava came back into the room to join us and shook her head. There were no signs of Tevian, but there was also no signs of where he might have gone. All his weapons and clothes were gone, and the only piece of paper left was a letter from his mother that was dated from about a week ago.
At least we knew that he had lived here recently, but otherwise, we had no leads about where he was. I liked to always have eyes on my enemies, and Tevian was too dangerous of an opponent to underestimate or to deal with later. So before we did anything else, I wanted to see what the other elves in the Blood City knew.
When we left Tevian’s house, I led my friends and the Elite toward the garrison to rejoin Leif. He was still in the middle of getting all the elven prisoners housed, but I interrupted him long enough to get the attention of all the nobles and soldiers who were currently in the garrison courtyard.
“I’m looking for General Tevian,” I called out as I strode up and down the rows of prisoners. “If anyone has information on where he is or what happened to him, I will count it as a great favor to me.”
The elves all just looked at each other. A few of them whispered and murmured amongst themselves, but no one said anything loud enough for me to hear, so I just continued to walk among them. Eventually, someone would talk because eventually, someone would want to earn favor with the new king or would dislike Tevian enough to betray him.
After all, they were already all prisoners, so there wasn’t much for them to lose at this point.
Finally, I spotted the second-in-command who had surrendered to me earlier that morning, so I moved toward him, as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other.
“Do you know something?” I asked. “Do you know what happened to General Tevian?”
“Don’t tell him anything,” an elven noblewoman wailed from beside the soldier. “He’ll kill you anyway, and he’ll feed our children to the dogs!”
I rolled my eyes, but before I could respond, the second-in-command glared at the elven woman and shook his head.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” the day elf said. “He may be a human, but he’s a good man.”
“I fail to see how that’s possible,” the elven woman sniffed.
“He could have already killed all of us,” the second-in-command pointed out. “There’s no reason for him to keep us alive, unless he meant what he said about how he wants to create a new kind of world.”
“I did mean it,” I said, “and that leads me back to my question. Do you know what happened to General Tevian?”
“He left the city,” the day elf told me.
“When?” I demanded.
“Last night,” the second-in-command replied. “It was late, but he told my captain that he wouldn’t be able to stay for the festival today because he had to leave town right away.”
“Did he say why?” Dar asked.
“He said that he needed to go inspect some of our military wilderness forts,” the day elf replied, “even though they’re not due for an inspection for another month.”
“But your captain didn’t tell him that?” I asked.
“Oh, General Tevian knew,” the day elf said, “but nobody really likes to tell him no. He’s got magic, you know. Quite a lot of it, actually, and he’s been known to even use it against the elves when they piss him off.”
“I can’t blame him on that account,” Clodia muttered.
“Thank you for your help,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Arlix,” the second-in-command answered.
“Thank you, Arlix,” I said, and then I waved at Leif to come over and join us.
“What can I do for you, my king?” Leif asked.
“Make sure Arlix here has whatever he needs,” I said, “and have someone check in on him often, would you? I have a feeling that he might be very helpful when it comes time to rebuild.”
Arlix bowed his head to me, and I nodded in response.
“Now let’s go somewhere a little more private,” I told my friends. “We have things to discuss.”
After I gave the Elite commands to help with the organization of prisoners, I headed inside the garrison itself with my friends and then locked ourselves inside the garrison commander’s office, so we could talk freely. I sat d
own in the commander’s chair, Dar and Ava found seats beside me, and Clodia swiped off a row of books from the top of a low bookshelf so she could perch on top of it herself.
“So none of that sounded good,” Penny declared as she sank down into a chair across from me and then kicked her feet up onto the desk.
“If he left last night before the festival,” Ava said, “then he must have left right after he talked to Clodia.”
“You mean right after he got raked over the goddamn coals by our favorite guild master,” Dar said with a smirk.
“I find it rather delightful that I was able to make the fearsome General Tevian run out of town with his tail tucked between his legs,” the night elf snickered.
“No offense, Clodia,” Penny said, “but are you really sure that’s why he left the city?”
“He could have just left because he didn’t want to stick around for the equinox festival,” Ava said.
“That’s true,” I said. “Tevian doesn’t drink at all himself, so he might have just wanted to skip town to avoid the biggest party of the year, so then he didn’t have to deal with a whole city of drunk elves.”
“Yeah, but the timing seems off, don’t you think?” Dar asked. “If that was the reason, wouldn’t he have already left? Why would he still have been in town last night?”
“He probably would have left earlier if he just wanted to avoid the festival,” Penny agreed.
“So then why would he have left all of a sudden?” Clodia demanded. “It’s not like him to just leave his post like that.”
“What if he knows what we’re doing?” Ava murmured.
“How?” Dar asked. “He only saw Clodia last night, not any of the rest of you, right?”
“Yes, but maybe he was already suspicious,” Ava said. “He might not know the details, but what if he suspected that we were up to something? Or that Clodia had something to do with it?”