Bladed Wings

by Amaris Chapman

  “Helloo, off with the fairies where we,” Taunted Trina as she swung herself up into the room.

  “What, oh just giving my eyes a break.”

  “Right, don’t believe you for a second but I’m not here to chat. You’re to come with me this afternoon, for archery lessons.”

  “With pleasure,” I said rolling up the scroll I was working on. Trina swung down the rope one handed using it more as a guide as she floated down to the ground.

  I ambled down, landing beside her with a thump.

  “Um, we will work on that tomorrow,” She laughed, helping me up.

  Mr Almasto and Michael; for reasons I didn’t want to know, were both covered in a strange green goo. We decided not to interrupt them.

  The archery range was busy with activity when we arrived. Trina helped me choose an appropriate sized bow and collect a quiver of arrows before leading me to a free target. I felt shy having to practice in front of everyone, but Trina assured me that they where disciplined soldiers and would barley notice what I was doing.

  I found it easy to pull back, aim and fire when I shot the first time, but it was hitting the target that I had trouble with. First shot I hit the grass 2 metres to the left of the target. Second shot went over the top and was lost in the long grass of the hill behind it. Third shot ripped the skin of my arm.

  “Owwwww.” I yelled clutching my arm.

  “Oh, whoops” Said Trina cringing next to me. “Sorry I forgot to warn you about that. Perhaps we should move up, you might find it a little easier and, um, less painful.”

  We moved up so that we where only a few metres from the target. I hesitated a little when I pulled on the string again. I closed my eyes than released, waiting for the searing pain to attack my arm again. But none came. I opened my eyes to find that I had actually hit the target. True it was the very edge and was very crooked and poked out the edge, but I hit it.

  “Well done, just do that again about 100 times and we might be getting somewhere.”

  I didn’t have the spirit to tell her that it was pure luck. So I took my chances and shot with my eyes open. I hit the bulls eye. I couldn’t help but do a victory dance. I skipped around Trina in a ‘rain dance’ style jig. A few of the elves laughed at my jig, one even joined in, so much for discipline.

  “Ok, alright, alright. Lets move back a metre and see you do it again.”

  We practiced until it grew dark. I could hit the bullseye 9/10 times, from up to 10metres away by the time we left the training field.

  The next day, I awoke after a short sleep to find a large, black, bruise on my arm from the bowstring. Despite this I once again went to the training grounds to practice. The grounds where alive with the sounds of arrows thudding their targets and the grunts of men as they fought each other with fast fluid movements.

  “Miss?” A tall elf came towards me from amongst the sparing.

  “Trina was unable to come today so has sent me to continue with your training. I am Xhaviour.” He swept into a swift bow before retrieving two swords from the rack behind him. I was sorry that we weren’t shooting but was looking forward to learning the sword as well. He was an expert swards man. The sword was a lot heavier than my dagger had been during the fight. I had trouble holding it up for more than a minute or two. Xhaviour assured me that my strength would build with time, but didn’t go easy on me all the same. He first taught me to block and dodge attacks, than when he felt confident that I could fend off a slow attack, we moved on to basic manurers. I was disappointed to find that although I had some talent with a bow and arrow, I could not weld a sword with enough speed to hold my own in a fight.

  By the end of the day, I could barley walk. I had welts on my arms and sides from Xhaviour’s attacks and my arms shook from holding the weight of the sword for so long.

  Chapter 17

  As the weeks went by, I developed a routine. In the mornings I had lessons that could involve anything from translating and reading historic books and manuscripts, to describing what I had learnt from observing the elves in their day-to-day life. Afternoons and the occasional full day, where spent in battle training. I grew to loathe my sessions with Xhaviour. He had the opinion that an enemy would not go easy on me so neither would he.

  “You’re leaving your left side open again.” He said as I massaged my bruised ribs.

  “I was blocking,” I said through clenched teeth. “But we have been doing the same manoeuvre for the last hour and my arms are getting tired.”

  “We can stop as soon as you get it right, now raise your weapon and do it again.”

  I didn’t see or hear from Trina for the first week after our archery lesson. She came and said hello for five minutes on our sixth night there but was soon called off again to where ever she lived.

  The thing that fascinated me the most though was magic. I read about it in my texts, and I witnessed the elves and witches performing it throughout the day but I was yet to be told how to use my powers. I had not asked as to why I was not learning, as I assumed I would begin further into my training and even though I often played around with my magic at home my Almasto never asked me to do magic with him. As the days passed by, a hunch grew in my gut.

  “Put some effort into it Michael. Hit me.” Mr Almasto and Michael spared around the room, sparks jumping off the walls. Their fighting grew more and more fierce as he pushed Michael harder. Michael threw hot balls of fire so fast that they where nothing more than red flashes across the walls.

  I was pouring over a dictionary of runes, using it to decipher a medical scroll as the room flashed red than blue as they danced around the furniture blasting chairs and cabinets out of the line of fire.

  During a particularly fierce bout Michael shot at Mr Almasto, but wasn’t prepared for the return and tripped on a chair leaving Mr Almasto’s blast spinning through the air straight for me. I brought my hands up hoping to block the blow with a shield as Michael had used in our first lesson. A blast of light swept through the room as the blast ricocheted off me and blasted a hole in the wall. I felt suddenly exhausted and had to lean on the wall to keep from collapsing.

  “Lilly, I’m so sorry, are you ok?”

  “Yeh, I think so.”

  Michael rushed over and helped me to my feet.

  I looked at the blackened hole in the wall, which was still smoking slightly and felt the need to sit down again.

  “Whoa there young lady, easy. Michael go and get her some water.” Michael rushed off to the jug outside whilst Mr Almasto repaired a chair for me.

  “Thank goodness you stopped it in time,” I said taking a sip of water.

  “We didn’t young lady, you did,” Said Mr Almasto, coming to sit in front of me.

  “But I didn’t say anything. I was too slow.”

  “It was my mistake and I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I thought, that if I didn’t allow you to do magic, than your powers would become dormant again until you where ready for them. We teach this to young elves that get their magic before they are old enough to understand the risks. But I can see now that you are too strong to let that happen. It appears that the safest option for all of us is for you to learn how to control it, so that you don’t blow as many things up.

  “We will start immediately I think, yes a good repairing spell should do nicely to start. You can’t blow much up with that.”

  He was half right. After I had calmed down a bit and had regained my strength, he showed me how to hold my hands over the object I wished to repair than chant the words.

  I blew a hole in the table on my first attempt but got the hang of it after a few more tries.

  The cups and saucers where a lot harder than the chairs as you had to know what they where before you can repair them. It was no use just saying the spell over a pile of glass, each cup had to be named before it would repair itself. I had great fun guessing what each piece of glass was and Michael helped whenever Mr Almasto turned his back, t
he glass simply melting back together with a casual flick of his hand.

  After repairing 5 glasses and only blowing apart 2, I was allowed to repair the hole in the wall. This took much more work. I could not repair the splintered wood that the frame of his home was made of, I had to regrow the broken branches.

  At first nothing happened and I frowned thinking that I must be doing it wrong than a soft light emerged from my palms and illuminated the burnt wood. The branches grew in spirals under my hands, each wrapping its self around the other to form a new pattern. Small buds appeared on the ends of each branch that burst into bloom as I brushed them with my fingers. I was very pleased with my effort as I stood back to admire the finished result. After I had finished gloating, Mr Almasto set me repairing branches of his tree that had been broken in the wind over the last few months. I felt that it was a task that he would not normally bother with, but I was thankful for the practice and had great fin with the young branches helping them bend together into wonderful patterns.

  “Lilly, what are you doing up there?” Trina called.

  “Working.”

  “Well stop and come down here, I was sent to bring you to the Queen.”

  I swung down the tree to the rope and met Trina at the base. I had not yet been able to master the elves agility. I was faster than any human but could not jump more than two metres into the air and was a rather pathetic climber despite my arms being a lot stronger than when I first arrived due to my practice with Xhaviour.

  “What does she want to talk to me for?” I asked mounting my broom, which I had taken to using when I had to cover long distances with any of the elves.

  “Like I know. Ready? Ok lets get going or we will be late.”

  It takes about 20 minutes to cross the forest to the great hall if you walk, however when I fly it takes just over 5, and if I’m racing Trina I can do it in about 2 minutes. I flew so fast that the forest was just a blur of greens and browns.

  I won as usual, Trina running up behind me as I lent the broom against a tree.

  We where met by the queens guards who escorted us to the golden throne room.

  The queen was waiting for us and looked at me sadly when I arrived.

  “My dear, I am truly sorry for what I am about to tell you. I never dreamt that it would come to this but her forces are growing every day, and we cannot hold them off much longer.” The Queen said when the doors had closed behind us.

  “Do you know who your father is, was?” She continued.

  “His name was Frederick if that’s what you mean,” I was rather taken aback by her directness. She had lost her air of calm and was instead looking rather distressed.

  “Yes, and he was also King of Violus, a city near you home and ruler of every one that lived there. He was killed by our enemy Lady Cassandra who wanted his power for herself. She was a human who found out about elves and our powers ad found a way to harness that power. You see when an elf dies their power is momentarily left in limbo before it is absorbed by the plants and animals around it, with the correct spell this power can be harnessed and taken into the spell weavers body. Lady Cassandra killed an elf that she captured many years ago and stole his power.” She rattled all of this off as she stared into my eyes as though willing me to understand.

  “Since than she has been on the hunt for more until eventually she realised that she would never be accepted by elves with just their powers. So she rallied an army, some where humans that she had tricked, some where beings with powers of their own and once they where strong enough she set out to murder your father and take his throne. She would have succeeded if it wasn’t for you little one,” her face softened for a moment as her eyes met mine. “You see, she did not know that he had a family. Once she had tracked and killed your father she thought that his people would be so over come with grief that they would not be able to resist her. But your father was wise. He had received word of her coming and had sent his people to safety with me, where he hoped they would be safe. Once he was dead the forest grew angry and sealed it self to all but the true heir to the throne as your father had commanded it to many years ago. The lady, not knowing who the heir was flew into a rage and swept down upon the person that had warned the king, an elf named Braken. His lover was the Leader of a witch clan named Salena. Salena and her clan tried to protect him but despite their efforts Bracken, Salena and many hundreds of witches where killed. The Lady, not knowing where the elves had fled, retreated into hiding until she could rebuild her army and learn our hiding place.”

  “But now she knows who I am.” I said quietly.

  “Yes but there is still hope. She sensed your power, with your fathers magic running in your veins. She thought to use your power to find us. The more she tracked you the more she begun to see who you where. But we had been watching you also and sent our own protection to you, hoping that he could deflect your location and identity for a few years longer until you where stronger and ready to take the throne. But in a moment of weakness The Lady drew you to her. Until that night that you faced her, she was still unaware of just how important you were. We did all we could to get you safely to us again. Even than we had hoped to keep you here in order to train you properly and allow you to grow, but the Lady knows our location and will be upon us in days. Others have sensed the danger and have joined with us, the sirens as I understand it have held them off for many days but they have found a way of numbing their men to their song, we cannot win alone, we need you now more than ever.”

  “But what can I do, I know hardly any magic, I can’t move like an elf should. How can you expect me to help anyone!” I didn’t know why I was yelling, but I was suddenly angrier than I had ever been. I felt my magic pulse through my veins and suddenly I could see my fathers face the look of shock on his smooth brown face as a body less hand passed before my face leaving a long red gash across his chest. His lips moved but no sound escaped the vision. Than he was gone.

  “My child you are so pale, Fetch some water,” She called to one of her footmen. “You have your fathers spirit. His magic flows through your veins. I can see it now,” she said the golden glow returning to the queens face. "And when you take your rightful position as Queen to your people, you will have access to the power that has been passed down through generations of elvan rulers. We will fight this war. And with you by our side, we may just win it.”

  It was all too much for me. Every thing she had said was running through my head, I didn’t want to believe it but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Answering questions about my life that I had, until now, over looked.

  “Did my mother know?” I asked finally pushing the image of my fathers dieing face from my mind.

  “Yes, she lived with your father in the forest for a time, but moved to the city when you where born, in an effort to keep you safe.”

  “And Linda, this means that she is an elf to.”

  “She is by birth, but unfortunately takes after your mother and has little to no magical abilities.”

  “She managed to fight us pretty well with the Ladies mob.” Trina put in, I jumped slightly having forgotten that she was there.

  “I suspect that The lady had something to do with that. Was she holding anything whilst she was using magic?” She asked.

  “Yes, they all where I think, one guy had a pen and another had a hanky, why?”

  “And those warriors that attacked the witches had scarves.” Trina added.

  “It is possible to store magic in an object. All the user has to do is draw upon it. It is a spell more often used by parents wishing to protect their children.”

  I walked to the window, and looked out across the city.

  “Who else knows about me, who I am I mean.” I asked after a time.

  “Myself, Isha, Trina here and a few of our most trusted friends. Although I cannot keep it from my people for long. With your permission I wish to tell them as soon as you have made your decision.”

  “What decision?”
I asked.

  “Weather you wish to take up the throne.”

  I turned and looked at her. “Than there is no decision,” I said. “I will do what my father wished me to.”

  The look of relief was so plain on her face that she looked just like any young woman I had known before it vanished and the Queen come back into herself.

  “The ceremony will take place at sunset. If you will follow Trina she will show you where you can prepare. I must go and make the announcement. But first I believe we have a message. Come in,” she called to the ceiling.

  A large black crow flew in through the twisted branches over head.

  “It is ok, she needs to know,” The Queen said as the bird circled overhead.

  To my amazement the bird flew into the air and in a sweep of black feathers formed a tall man in a black travelling cloak. He pushed back his hood and I saw that it was Michael. I stood transfixed, I realised that I had been blind not to realise before. The bird that I had saved at school, than Michael turning up the next day. I had even seen him transform when he fell from the ladder. He must have been trying to save himself and me by being lighter as a bird. All those times I saw him emerging from the forest at home in the same black travelling cloak.

  I realised he was talking to the queen and moved closer to hear what he was saying.

  “…Yes the sirens where able to ruin two ships and the water spirits another, but five more approach at great speeds my Queen.”

  “Warn the guards and set lookouts at all towers. Princess Amaris, do I have your leave to set your guards as well?” Michael looked around at me, he smiled but did not look as though the news that I was royalty was new to him.

  “Yes, do as you must.” I replied.

  “Than set up the best warriors of Fredericks army by the northern gates. Once this is completed return here. I believe Princess Amaris needs her friends by her side,” She had recovered her calm aura as she asked one of her hand maidens to show us to our room.