The Last Larnaeradee

by Shelley Cass

  “Lady,” I said quickly, assuming this title unconsciously. “I must go with Kiana.” I took a stumbling step towards the Elf named Frey, and I was surprised at how far away my voice sounded.

  The Lady smiled and inclined her head in understanding as Noal and Agrudek stood loyally by me. The warrior whose support I leaned on steered me to follow Kiana as Frey carried her through the parted crowd, and the immense energy that seemed to dwell within him poured over me so that my stupor abated slightly, the blurriness shifting back to the edges of my vision.

  We were taken to one giant tree ‘tower’ among many, and I felt numb when we entered through a gracefully carved doorway at the bottom of the twisting trunk to find a large room that looked like part of a wooden home instead of the inside of a tree. Steps protruded from the wooden walls and wound upward, but the Lady waited for us to stand around her, and before I could blink, I was being sucked dizzyingly upward.

  I saw a series of beautifully adorned, round rooms that were within the tree as I hurtled upward, but I vaguely realised that we were whizzing directly through hard objects in these rooms, as if they were nothing, to get to the utmost part of the tree.

  Our motion then stopped jarringly quickly when we found ourselves in the highest room where a large, rounded, wooden framed bed nestled against a curved wall.

  The softly lit room looked like the safest place in the world in the eyes of weary travellers. There was a large, diamond shaped window, a vine and branch wrought balcony, and the bed was made up with a plump white cover.

  Frey carried Kiana over to lay her on the bed, getting blood on the cover, and I saw how deathly pale her face was.

  I fumblingly wormed my way free and crossed the circular room to stand at her side, swaying.

  Frey caught me before I toppled over, but I was intent on bending to clutch her icy hand in my own. Buckling knees were an enemy and I ignored them.

  I only looked up at the warm feeling of the Lady’s hand upon my shoulder. A shock of rushing energy made my focus shift without my meaning it to.

  “Please help her,” I whispered, and the Lady nodded with a kind smile.

  “Now that you have seen she is safe, you can be comforted. Frey and I will tend to her, and you can wait in the room below.”

  “Thank you,” I told the Lady as the room swam. “I don’t want to be far away from her.”

  “Of course,” she agreed as the other warrior collected me good naturedly again and I was led away.

  I peered over my shoulder as the warrior helped me down the steps growing out from the walls, and I saw the Lady bending over Kiana.

  Then I sent a silent prayer up to the Gods. Over and over again.

  Don’t let her die.

  Chapter Eighty Three

  Noal

  “This gash will need stitches,” a tall, stern looking healer Elf named Ailill remarked. He was inspecting Dalin’s thigh from where he had collapsed in a large armchair that looked to be made out of white clouds.

  A breathtaking female Elf named Chloris was tending to Agrudek where he slept too.

  The third healer, a male named Silvanus, had already approved my health, and I sat out of the way beside Asha and Vidar – the Elf who had supported Dalin on our journey through the Forest. I sipped at a cup of cool water appreciatively.

  “Your friends are in the best care,” Asha told me in her high voice, floating down to sit on a polished, intricately carved mahogany desk beside me.

  “His stump has been cauterised, and is not infected,” I heard Chloris say quietly as she examined Agrudek.

  “Stitches?” I asked, leaning forward nervously to watch Ailill appraising Dalin. “My friends aren’t clothes for mending.”

  Asha waved a tiny, dimpled hand. “The Raiden won’t feel a thing. When Ailill is holding sharp things, he’s at his nicest.”

  “Stitches simply bind a wound so it heals properly,” Ailill explained.

  Asha grinned, running a hand through a lock of fiery red hair for a moment, and when she let it go it floated back up to stand on end with the rest of her hair.

  Silvanus crouched beside Chloris and Agrudek. “Poor little fellow,” the tall being said softly. Next to Silvanus, Agrudek truly did look alarmingly small. “It’s best to let him stay asleep. We can give him something for his pains when he wakes.”

  Ailill on the other hand looked far from gentle as he now held a small knife.

  I sat further forward in my chair, more nervous than before.

  “Relax,” Asha laughed in a bubbling chuckle.

  Chloris poured something from a flask into Dalin’s mouth and he hardly stirred, then she briskly began to wipe the sweat and dried blood from the cut on his face, before thoroughly cleaning the deeper gash on his thigh.

  Silvanus held Dalin’s thigh while Ailill next cut a bigger slice in Dalin’s pants leg around the cut there, and then threaded a small needle with a thin thread.

  I winced as I saw the needle pass into Dalin’s flesh and out again, the skin around the gaping cut pulling closed as Ailill calmly drew his stitching tightly together.

  Only moments later, a clean white bandage had been neatly wrapped around Dalin’s thigh and he and Agrudek were covered with plush blankets, both of them looking drained and pale in their sleep.

  “Thank you,” I told the healer Elves meekly as they packed up to leave, but I resolved to stay awake in case I was needed by Dalin or Kiana anyway.

  I rubbed at my eyes with my fist, grinding the sleep from them as I was left with just Vidar and Asha for company.

  “You could do with a bath,” Asha remarked frankly when they left. “I can tend to you,” she added wickedly.

  I fast felt wide awake again as I stared at the Nymph, who was like a flicker of light and life in the room.

  “Yes, she is often so suggestive,” Vidar nodded sympathetically from where he sat against the writing desk now too. “You have to watch out for Nymphs. They’re wily ones.”

  Asha floated up into a standing position with her hands on her hips, her fiery hair seeming suddenly fierier and sticking out more stiffly than before as her red eyes drew level with his.

  “Well with Elves what you have to watch out for is their big fat heads,” she retorted moodily. “If you’re not careful you fly right into them all the time.”

  “Big fat head?” Vidar asked her in an injured tone.

  She poked out her tongue, like waving a pink little petal, and floated gracefully back down to sit beside him.

  “When Nymphs have such vibrance, and Elves have such big fat heads,” I jested, “how is it that my kind know nothing of you? Will you explain some things about yourselves to me?”

  Vidar patted Asha’s cheek lovingly. “Well, Elves are magical beings,” he started. “We have longer lives than what you would consider normal.” I gave him a questioning look. “We are considered to be elders when we reach two hundred years.”

  I tried to nod with easy acceptance. The flawless features of the Elves made them appear ageless. But compared to mortals, he was ancient. Only nobility tended to live beyond sixty or seventy years in Awyalkna, and they still at least showed the aging process.

  “We thrive from a connection to Nature,” Vidar continued. “It gives us our life, whereas mortals rely on their own bodies for energy.”

  “Right,” I replied weakly. “So the immortal thing?”

  “We could live forever if we chose. But it would be hard for us to keep our grip on reality, and life would be confusing and dangerous; only a half-life as our bodies and minds lose connection – our Nature given souls yearning to return to the earth. Most of us feel tired of this heightened awareness and connectedness at the elder stage, and move onto a new path. Passing from physical life,” Vidar explained. “And even before old age, if we don’t train together or interact with our Nymphs, Elves fast become too introspective. It is like an illness for us.”

  “And us Nymphs are the most magnificent, beautiful, intelligent
beings you’ll ever find,” Asha chirped in flamboyantly. “For example, have you ever seen hair as good as ours?”

  I laughed. “No, you’re right there.”

  Vidar grimaced. “The Nymphs are of course bubbly, free, wild, fast paced, and keep us Elves from sinking too far into our intense seriousness. But,” Vidar said firmly.

  “Always a but,” she said crossly, zipping higher above the desk.

  “These compact little ones are also tricksters, mischief makers, and in no way to be underestimated,” warned Vidar.

  “Can’t disagree with that particular kind of but, Vidar,” Asha beamed with a happy smile that engulfed her gorgeous face, and she returned to nestle beside him placidly, hugging his massive arm with both of her teensy ones.

  I could hardly imagine such an innocent looking soul as Asha ever being dangerous. “So how did both of your kinds come together?” I asked curiously.

  Vidar sagged a little. “When Darziates wiped out the Larnaeradee and the Unicorns, the Centaurs, Sprites and other deities, he turned his sights on the Nymphs. They made it to us to seek refuge.”

  My stomach did a somersault. I remembered back with a flash to the day that Kiana had told the village children of Wanru the stories of the Fairies and the Unicorns. My mind reeled as I considered that her tales of Farne and Treyun, of Kinrilowyn and Sylranaeryn, as well as the Army for the World against Deimos – could be true.1 I had seen enough magical beings now that I could believe it.

  “Why didn’t the Army of the World rise again, if Darziates was doing such things?” I asked, aghast.

  “The Larnaeradee and Unicorns were targeted first, and they had always been the ones to keep the uniting language of Aolen alive. When they were no longer there to help each race communicate and rise up, fear and suspicion spread,” Vidar explained.

  “Asha’s kind, more fearsome than can be imagined by looking at them, were targeted last in these lands.”

  Asha snuggled her cheek into Vidar’s arm for comfort. “We used to live in clans, and warred for the fun of competition. But we came together at the Sorcerer’s threat and moved into the mountains bordering Jenra and Sylthanryn. He found us with no trouble, and though we threw all we had at him, he was never injured or exhausted. As we tired, he summoned demons of the Other Realm.” She shuddered, the merry spark dying in her eyes. “A crack tore the atmosphere, and fiends of horror; shapeless monsters of deadly shadow, climbed out. Darziates had created a rift between our two worlds, and dread beyond describing spilled like nightmares into our midst. Abominations upon Nature. None could survive their foul touch; the darkness that made them could suck dry the pure magic that made up a Nymph. So when too few of us remained, we fled.”

  Asha wiped a stream of tears that were dripping down her cheeks and chin to fall like raindrops upon the floor. Her emotions were powerful, moving to extremes, and I was amazed at the transformation the cheeky Nymph had undergone.

  “Beyond exhaustion, spurred only by our terror, we managed to flee into the Forest’s refuge. We could go no further and dared not risk being separated; the only survivors of our entire race. The demons and spirits reached the Forest border, but found that they could not go further into the Lady’s domain. They roared and beat against the borders, but Darziates dismissed the Other Realm fiends back to their world. Darziates had no trouble stepping beyond the border, and he was calmly advancing, building up the spell that would obliterate the last of us, when the Elves and the great Lady of the Forest arrived.” Asha drew a deep breath and buried her face completely in Vidar’s muscular arm.

  Vidar’s deep, low voice began then.

  “We Elves had long been suffering a sickness of introversion and inactivity – our minds absorbed in Nature. We were becoming increasingly catatonic, trapped in what we called our intense seriousness, but our great awakening was when we felt the Nymphs arrive, and we roused ourselves to speed to their sides.”

  He gently enfolded one of Asha’s hands in his own, her hand not even half the size of his massive palm.

  “The Lady joined her ancient and boundless power with the Elves and the depleted Nymphs, and with such unity we managed to banish Darziates from the Forest. Darziates and his dark creatures could never again enter here, and from that time we sheltered the Nymphs from despair, while they helped us to thrive once more.”

  “Darziates had murdered so many of the magical races,” Asha sniffed, “that soon the mortals who had loved us forgot that we had truly lived. And the magical races dwelling across the seas were all forbidden from coming here to help as it would only bring them into danger too. The only surviving Unicorns hid in Karanoyar, the single surviving family of the Larnaeradee hid amongst mortals, and the remaining Nymphs remained in the Forest.”

  I shook my head, my mind boggled. “It’s a wonder your City has put so much effort into helping us ordinary three then, in the face of all of that. I never realised how huge this all was.”

  Asha smiled. “But you are the Three that we have been waiting for!” she said. “You do not know of the prophecies. Of your role in them.”

  I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. “I think you’ve got the wrong people.”

  Asha shot back up into the air, ready to persuade me, but Vidar tugged gently at her little foot where it was hanging next to his ear.

  “Perhaps leave it for the Lady to explain,” Vidar suggested softly, and she scrunched up her face, but floated back down to his eye level.

  I regretted that they’d perhaps rescued us out of mistaken expectation, but Dalin was asleep and safe, and Kiana was in a fight for her life. So knew I wouldn’t have passed up their aid for anything.

  * * *

  1 The ‘Tales of the Fairies and Unicorns’ are included at the end of this text.

  Chapter Eighty Four

  Dalin

  The sound of footsteps had me awake in an instant.

  I sprang forward, bracing myself, my heart racing. I’d woken in some unnamed fear, startled forth from a dreamless, deep sleep with my stomach in knots.

  I blinked rapidly at the peculiar sunset filled room I was in, with my chest rising and falling fast.

  An Elf of splendidly dark skin and enormous build sat at a massive window nearby. He seemed to have been woken by my sudden movement as he gazed at me from beneath protruding, startlingly white eyebrows.

  “Dalin?” a firm hand stayed my arm as I moved to stand.

  Noal had leaned over from his own chair to calm me, and I saw two other concerned faces peering at me from behind him as well.

  An Elf and a Nymph.

  I also saw Frey on the stairs – the source of the footsteps.

  Everything came rushing back into focus.

  “Kiana?” I croaked urgently, my throat dry. “Is there any news?”

  I tried to take a step, but an unexpected bolt of burning pain shot up my thigh, which had been bandaged.

  “Sit down and stop putting so much pressure on my new stitches,” the Elf that had awoken at the same time as me instructed, pointing at my leg.

  “Stitches?” I vaguely remembered getting sliced. One savage Krall warrior had seen the weakness of a smaller gash there and had widened it for me.

  “Yes, stitches,” the stern Elf replied almost primly.

  “Ailill mended you like clothing,” the red haired Nymph smirked, floating just over Noal’s head, on her back, her arms cushioning her head and her legs crossed in the very picture of comfort. “But Vidar and I – Asha – we were here to keep you safe,” she told me daintily. She kicked her little legs in the air so that she was propelled lazily away.

  “Frey,” I asked him desperately, not relaxing. “What did you come to say?”

  “The Lady has done what she can for Kiana for now,” Frey answered solemnly. “She has finishing her work, and once you are washed you may come up.”

  I hobbled forward immediately. “Kiana will live?”

  “Kiana will continue the fight for her life,” Frey incli
ned his head. “The Lady has given her a chance.”

  “I shall go with them to make sure they wash before they visit the One,” Asha suggested nefariously.

  But Vidar rose to help me, guiding Noal and I to the washroom instead, where I was under Ailill’s strict instructions not to wet my stitches.

  The sky was darkening outside and both Noal and I speedily washed, dried and dressed in new, elegant shirts and cream coloured trousers before Noal helped me stumble back up to the other room.

  “Despite those being Elfling clothes, you do look regal,” Asha commented with an approving eye, and she somersaulted playfully backward in the air to perch on the ornamental desk across from the window.

  “Can I see Kiana?” I husked breathlessly as Frey stood when we made our entrance.

  “She clings to life,” Frey warned as I limped towards him. “And she might not ever regain her full strength or recover full use of her shoulder.”

  I jolted toward the steps to Kiana’s room.

  “Frey, please make sure my stitches aren’t torn,” Ailill sighed, and Frey reached out to help me propel up the steps.

  “Easy, Raiden,” Frey said quietly, steadying me with one hand, but I hardly noticed. I had struggled up and into the globe lit room in moments.

  The Lady was no longer there, but I stopped at the sight of Kiana lying in that large bed.

  Careful hands had combed and arranged Kiana’s wavy raven hair away from her face. She wore a light cotton shirt, tied loosely so that I could see the layers of white bandages wrapping around her chest and shoulder. Thin white sheets had been draped over her and her arms rested freely upon the bed.

  I took a deep breath. I stepped away from Frey and haltingly crossed the distance between us until I stood at her bedside, looking down at the amazing woman who had led two strangers on a foolhardy Quest, through unbelievable, supernatural friends and foes, through injury, and through darkness, to become as dear to me as Noal and my Awyalkna.

  I touched her hand lightly, and saw that sweat glistened upon her skin, lying over her like a mist even though she had been dressed in the thinnest possible sleep clothes to ease the fever. Her eyelashes, sweeping downward like fine paint strokes on her cheeks, seemed stark in their darkness against her pallor.