The Last Larnaeradee

by Shelley Cass

  She turned to Noal. “I crave peace tonight,” she told him simply. “I shall be back by morning, and I will make sure nothing is about tonight to harm you.” Then she swung herself easily onto Amala’s bare back.

  “Where are you going now?” I demanded.

  She whispered something into Amala’s ear. My bay at once broke into a canter at her command, and they disappeared into the night.

  I slumped in dismay, dumbfounded by the exchange. I hadn’t meant to be so cruel.

  Noal, who had not spoken at all during the exchange, turned to me. “You need to apologise.”

  “She had a part in it too!” I defended.

  “You need to apologise.” Then he laid down, back to me, and closed his eyes to sleep.

  I knew he was right.

  And sleeplessly I watched the stars, burning like silver jewels of fire, and I wondered what it would be like to fly away from the guilt of leaving my parents, escape fear for Awyalkna, and fly away from the confusion of Kiana, to those beautiful buds of light.

  Chapter Thirty

  Dalin

  I woke to someone shaking my shoulder.

  I opened my eyes to find the sky was now pale with an early sun. Kiana was kneeling beside me, having come back as she’d promised, but as soon as she saw I was awake she moved to rouse Noal.

  Both horses were saddled and had the packs tied neatly onto them. Traces of the fire had been covered with dirt and leaves.

  Noal yawned and rubbed his face. “Time for breakfast?” he asked blearily.

  “We’ll have breakfast in the saddle,” Kiana told him authoritatively. “I want us to get started and travel until we reach Wanru Valley tomorrow morning.”

  “Will we stop for lunch?” Noal asked, alert with surprise now. “Or dinner?”

  “We’ll stop riding only to rest Ila and Amala. But then we’ll go on foot ourselves instead.”

  Noal put his hand to his forehead, looking queasy.

  I cleared my throat. “Can I ask why you feel we must hurry to the next township?”

  Kiana considered me for a cool moment. “It’s a hunter’s instinct. That’s all. There have been no signs that we are being followed, but it is a wise caution to perturb a search and lose ourselves in crowded areas quickly while we can. Mix up our scent with that of others for a couple of days to throw any unnatural followers off our timing and trail. Wanru is also isolated enough by distance and a bordering ring of hills that they may not have heard news of two nobles being on the loose.”

  “I agree with you,” I told humbly, and she appeared faintly surprised. “For whatever reason, Darziates may still be interested in our progress. The thing is, if we want speed, I need a horse, and we only have two.”

  “It’d be too heavy with both Dalin and I on poor Ila, along with our packs,” Noal surmised the obvious fact.

  “I know,” Kiana stated simply as she stood for action. “Dalin will be riding with me.”

  I gaped in astonishment, astounded at how easily she’d accepted me to ride with her.

  But Kiana just shouldered her pack and dusted her trousers down; business like.

  She held out her hand to Noal and he let her drag him to his feet before she moved off to Amala.

  As I helped my own self to my feet and Kiana swung herself up into the saddle, I saw why she had so easily accepted me to ride with her.

  “Kiana … Won’t I be the one holding the reins?” I asked tentatively.

  “No. You can take your leisure at the back.” She braided her long hair quickly, perhaps out of pity for me and the lashing it would have given me otherwise.

  I gritted my teeth instead of arguing, and huddled in the saddle behind her, quickly losing all heroic visions of being the gallant knight and assertive lead.

  Instead I, the great and noble Dalin, held onto Kiana’s waist, like a good emasculated damsel in distress.

  However my bitterness faded as we moved quickly over the land, saving my legs – and occupying my arms with an embrace around Kiana’s waist. She still smelt somehow as fresh as newly picked flowers and pine. And surprisingly, I had to begrudge the moments when we alternately dismounted to walk when I could behave like an empowered marching soldier once more.

  I’d completely given up being disgruntled by the end, and was snuggling against her back quite contentedly when at first light we saw the large hills Kiana had said would be surrounding the basin-like valley of Wanru.

  I forced myself to sit up with at least a scrap of dignity as we rode down through the hills, following a steep, rocky path into the village at the bottom of the deep basin.

  I was musing that Wanru was a larger village than Gangroah and Giltrup, expanding in the protection of the huge hills, when I felt a sudden flash of dismay as Kiana slid lightly from the saddle in front of me. There was the abrupt loss of her warmth against my chest, and I sagged a little.

  “All seems well,” Kiana observed with a slight hint of relief. No leader came rushing out to ask us what our business was, and children roamed without a care – chasing each other gaily, tussling and laughing as they played. Womenfolk bustled about, and while there were no young men left, people didn’t seem worn or miserable here. Nobody appraised us with suspicion or gave unwelcoming stares, some of the children even waved as we passed.

  “I don’t understand how well it does seem,” Noal remarked. “This village is one of the closest to the borders of both Krall and where the massacre of Bwintam was. I would expect them to be more wary of strangers.”

  Kiana shrugged as we considered the peaceful town scene. “It’s hard to feel threatened by outside forces, no matter how close, when you’ve lived in a private bubble like this for all your life. The worry of war fades when you feel the protection of those hills and hear barely anything of what goes on abroad. Wanru has always been lulled into a feeling of security.”

  I spotted a pretty young woman scrubbing at some clothes in a wooden wash tub outside one dwelling, and saw her watching us with interest rather than fear as we moved towards her, following Kiana to the Inn.

  “We’re likely not to need our travelling entertainer story here, in the absence of distrust or rumours of two nobles being missing,” Kiana continued, ready to pass the girl and continue along the road.

  “Well met,” the girl greeted us warmly as we approached, pausing in her scrubbing.

  “Well met,” Kiana replied politely, but I noticed the maiden’s eyes were on me.

  “If you’re looking for the Inn,” the young woman commented hospitably, “it’s at the end of the market square on the left.” She pointed further down the road, to the exact place Kiana had already been heading.

  “Yes. Thank you,” Kiana nodded to her, but the girl wasn’t listening.

  “Staying long?” she asked me with big eyes and dimples flashing in her cheeks.

  I leaned forward in the saddle to oblige her with an answer. “Only a couple of nights, unfortunately, before we must move on. I can assure you it won’t be nearly long enough.”

  She laughed and blinked long eyelashes.

  Noal snorted into his hand and I noticed Kiana roll her eyes.

  “Well, we best move on and get our rooms at the Inn,” I told the girl, who nodded and daintily smoothed her skirts. “Be well,” I said courteously.

  “Be well, and I hope we shall meet again,” she replied with a gratuitous smile, watching me with her big eyes.

  I looked to see if Kiana was going to jump back into the saddle in front of me.

  She lifted her eyebrows at me. “Your head seems swollen. There’s no room for me up there,” she commented. Then she turned to Noal, held out her hand for him to obediently clasp and swung herself lightly onto Ila behind him.

  She let him take the reins.

  Chapter Thirty One

  The raven screeched harshly. Relishing the grey skies and frigid air as she swooped away from the castle. In her raven form she was still sharp minded, sharp sighted, but also free of
the burden of her earth bound body, and her own inexplicably growing dread.

  Ever since the Evexus had failed to capture the Awyalknian boys of her vision, something about the supposed threat from those runaways had been nagging at Agrona, making her feel almost personally endangered.

  Darziates was as unconcerned as ever, but Agrona was glad that he had decided she would be sent with Agrudek’s perfected Evexus this time. When the inventor was done she would make sure things went well. Prove her loyalty. Her love. In fact she was now on her way to organise a soothing surprise for the Sorcerer to make her approaching journey even more of a success.

  The Witch swept easily over the grounds, squawking over the muddy streets, high above the reek of humanity. She enjoyed the sight of those ducking and running under her raven shadow below, only slowing when she reached the military training grounds for mortal soldiers, where they hit at each other and ran in formations and stank like cattle.

  As she circled down to where the Warlord Angra Mainyu stood and barked orders, the men closest to his hulking, solid figure quickly moved away before she had even melted into her own form, resplendent in a crimson gown with fabric lined by glittering rubies.

  “Agrona,” Angra’s harsh voice rumbled through a forest of grizzled, sweaty stubble, his eyes on her body as it changed. “I’ve missed your visits.”

  “Yes. We haven’t made our mark on the world as much of late. But, I’ve had an idea,” she purred. “Soon I will be leaving to complete the Dread Lord’s tasks, and I think you should go out with me at the start, and have some games once more.”

  His eyes lit up. “Where are we attacking? I will follow you.”

  Her painted lips twisted in a false smile at how easily the Warlord succumbed.

  “Then to Wrilapek village north of the Awyalknian hilly lands you must follow. They are a horse rearing village with beasts Krall could use.”

  He grinned at her in a repulsive snarl half obscured by his lumpy, swollen nose – and all the while Agrona considered how delightful it would be to rip that gross face off and be rid of the Sorcerer’s only other trusted underling.

  “When do we leave, Sorceress?” Angra glowered with desire, his eyes burning as they often did with an uncanny light, which many people believed was the light of an Other Realm spirit who had possessed him.

  Agrona was certain Darziates had experimented in some such way on the Warlord, and suspected that that was the only real worth Darziates found in the demented human. But the light was also likely a mix of Angra’s own blood lust and madness after having been too close to Darziates for so long.

  Angra was eagerly watching her lips as she started to reply, but then she felt a sharp calling from her King.

  “Agrona.” Darziates’ voice seared across her mind, plucking at her spirit.

  A thrill rippled through her body and at once, every other priority faded. She immediately brushed thoughts of Angra aside, while he continued to froth with excitement.

  “It will be soon. The King is calling,” she answered abruptly, eyes back on the castle.

  He wanted her. She waved the mad mortal away from her thoughts, and readied to morph.

  “Agrona, I can’t stand waiting. Let us ready to go!” Angra’s coal black eyes glinted red, and his voice changed, becoming harsh and commanding.

  “I am to be instructed first by our King. I’m needed now.”

  She’d lost focus on him, but Angra Mainyu’s arm shot out and a grime covered, meaty hand seized her wrist.

  That demanding, clammy hand swallowed nearly up to her elbow, and the Warlord brought his face close to the Witch’s, his breath hot on her deathly white cheek. She could see the red light in his eyes more clearly now; the brokenness and insanity others feared.

  Agrona glared at him icily, and with a wave of her free hand, made her captured wrist suddenly become red-hot while not feeling any pain herself.

  He held on as his hand quickly began to blister and smoke, leaving a smell of burned flesh in the air. Then as the pain in his hand throbbed, the red light in his burning eyes faded, and he looked up at her with a smirk, dropping her wrist.

  “You forgot your place, Angra,” she snarled. “And you are lucky to still have a hand. You’ll wait for my summons and be ready.”

  “Thank you for not taking my hand.” He lowered his eyes, and she was grimly satisfied to have reminded him of who was ranked just a little more highly out of the two of them.

  She melted back into raven form before him, squawking, and then swooped back across the sullied streets to the castle to sweep in through the open window of the King’s council room.

  She found that the King was already seated, straight backed in his steel throne. Darziates’ face was emotionless, but for the power of his icy eyes. White-blonde hair was pulled away from beautiful pale features, revealing a noble brow.

  As she flew across the room to perch on the high back of his throne, she saw they weren’t alone.

  Apart from the twenty armoured guards that lined the hall, standing at intervals at the walls of the room, there was a snivelling heap on the floor. The ratty man with the carrot-coloured hair. Agrudek.

  Agrudek was kneading his hands in sick terror. “Please … Sire, Dread Lord … I’ve made five of the Evexus this time, and, and I am sure they are perfected for you to replicate them.”

  The King furrowed his brow almost imperceptibly.

  The little scientist leaned forward on his knees, his face white. “Please, my King … where are my family? I went home, and … it looked like there had been a struggle … Majesty, don’t harm them … please. Sire?”

  Darziates still didn’t respond, only moving slightly in his chair. “Agrona,” he acknowledged the raven.

  She screeched back her greeting, revelling in his attention. All of the twenty guards flinched and averted their eyes. Agrudek quailed, whimpering.

  “Please, Sire, there’s no need to disturb the Witch …”

  Darziates let the cold of his glare burn Agrudek for a moment, and the quivering little man quieted.

  “Agrona, this thing has only made five Evexus. He does not have the information I require,” he paused, looking up at her. “He was also the one who spoiled our first opportunity to act on your vision. Does he deserve his family?”

  She observed Agrudek beadily. Then flew from her perch to the floor between the terrified Agrudek and her master’s throne. As she grew, merging into her other form, every eye was upon her. Every breath but the King’s was held in apprehension. From where he cowered at her feet, Agrudek watched helplessly, his eyes following her upward as she transformed. At last, she stood before them all, looking down at the wretched man. The hem of her draping skirts swept inches from his flinching face and she saw him regard her as all mortals did – with awe for her beauty, with fear and with loathing.

  “King Darziates, this man is worthless. He has betrayed you in his continuing failure, and deserves punishment, not reward,” she said slyly, thinking back to Angra and how great an impact taking a hand could have.

  “Yes.” Darziates affirmed indifferently. Agrudek had already been condemned and the moment was over in the King’s mind.

  “Though this fool deserves death,” the Witch of Krall paused as Agrudek gasped. “You are kind and wise, Majesty, and will spare his life.”

  “For what purpose?” the King asked, cold eyes passive as she played her games.

  Agrona’s voice was of velvet and poison. “Agrudek must be punished and must redeem himself,” she mused. “For redemption, he must journey into Awyalkna and find those boys himself,” she resolved in playful glee. Agrona knew, everyone in the hall knew, that he would never get through Awyalkna alive, or find the boys to save himself or his family.

  Agrudek cried out. “But, Lord, you need me … the Awyalknians will kill me as an enemy from Krall …”

  The scientist was silenced again by the ice of the King’s eyes. “And for punishment?”

  An insp
ired smile stretched Agrona’s angular face. “I will remove something that he needs in compensation for the trouble he has caused you, and to pay for his family’s lodgings in our prison.”

  She felt Agrudek’s heart spasm wildly. She could even feel the disgust of some of the guards. Others were more corrupted by the Sorcerer, and were enjoying the show.

  She moved closer and Agrudek’s eyes were near to bulging out of his head as she motioned for him to outstretch his arm.

  Forced by her magic, his arm haltingly extended even as he strained to pull it back. And she took his small hand in her hard, bony grip and let heat engulf his fist. She’d been unable to go as far as she’d wanted to with the Warlord, and so she relished the chance to test how far she could go with the inventor as he screamed. His knuckles blistered and the skin cracked and she was delighted as his hand slowly burned.

  She let it burn down to nothing.

  And all the while she smiled, filling the air with the aroma of cooking meat and showing her Sorcerer how ruthless she could be for him.

  .

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Kiana

  I found myself a rock pool cuddled protectively amongst the hills where I could wash all cares away as the boys ate and slept away all of theirs.

  It was afternoon, and the sun was hot and high when I dressed again and wandered back, catching sight of the boys lounging on the veranda of the tavern with some old men. They were talking and drinking mead. And, being nobles, they seemed very excited to be experiencing this side of life.

  Noal waved, but as I was heading across the market towards them I felt a tugging on my belt.

  My hand automatically flew to the hilt of my sword, concealed by my long cloak, and I turned quickly. But I found two little faces looking up at me and relaxed. Just two little boys.

  “Well met!” smiled one.

  “Well met!” smiled the other.

  “We’re bored!” stated the first.

  “Know any stories?” asked the second.

  “We’ve heard all of Wanru’s stories, and they’re boring now,” said the first.