The others ran up behind their leader. “Let’s eat her,” one suggested eagerly. “She looks so soft and delicious.”
The leader stood up on its hind legs and tossed Taite over its shoulder. “No,” it hissed back. “Lord Rayfen wants this one alive. He will reward us if we bring her to him.”
“Yes,” the others hissed in agreement.
“Let’s return to the ship,” the leader said. The draks turned around to return the way they had come.
“Help me!” Taite shouted to the owl, but received no reply. Instead the owl simply flapped its wings and flew away into the night sky. Taite began to cry as she watched her last friend abandon her. She was truly alone.
The drakmere made their way through the forest moving easily in the darkness. Taite grunted as she bounced up and down on the drak’s shoulder, the beast taking little care in her comfort. They had walked in silence for some time when Taite heard the hoot of an owl. She lifted her head, looked up into the night sky, and saw her friend soaring high above followed by four other owls. The owls suddenly turned and dove downward toward the drakmere, taking the draks by surprise as they flew upon them digging their talons into the monsters’ faces and eyes. The draks recovered from the surprise and grabbed weapons from the slings across their backs and swung at the birds, but the owls fluttered up and out of reach.
Suddenly, Taite saw movement in the bushes just before a pack of red wolves appeared and leapt toward the drakmere. The draks turned with shrieks as the wolves attacked, sinking their teeth into the monsters’ flesh, leaping upon them and ripping at their jugulars. The draks were vastly outnumbered by the wolves and were overtaken quickly. Taite was dropped to the ground as the drak carrying her struggled to fight off two wolves. The pack leader turned and faced Taite. “Run!” it howled at her and Taite scrambled to her feet and rushed off into the forest leaving the shrieks of the drakmere behind.
Taite ran as fast as she could through the trees and shrubs, stumbling and falling more than once, before swiftly regaining her feet and continuing forward. As she ran tree branches slapped her face and bushes snagged at her dress as if trying to constrain her, but she fought through, caring little for what lay ahead of her for she knew that draks were behind her.
Taite dashed through a clump of bushes and fell, landing in a creek with a splash. She struggled to stand, but lost her footing and was swept away with the swift moving current. She struggled to stay afloat as the water began to move faster and faster and the creek grew larger and larger. She watched the bank sail by and then glanced forward. Her eyes opened wide as she realized that the bank appeared to simply vanish into the night sky in front of her. She shrieked as she fell over the side of a waterfall to land in a pool a hundred feet below. She sank to the bottom of the pool where she pushed off against the rocks and fought to return to the surface gasping for air.
Her journey was not over, however, as the water continued to flow and she was again swept up in the current. The creek eventually emptied out into the river and Taite swam with all of her might toward the shore. She climbed and clawed her way up onto a rocky beach where she attempted to stand, but slipped on the wet rocks, falling back down. She looked up into the sky and noticed that it was turning orange as the sun began to rise. She laid her head back against the hard rocks and closed her eyes, fainting from pure exhaustion.
She did not know how long she slept, but when she opened her eyes the sun was up and she squinted in the brightness. She closed her eyes again and groaned from the pain. Her entire body ached. Suddenly, she heard the crunch of rocks and opened her eyes again to see a pair of boots walking toward her. She screamed in terror as she was lifted up off of the ground. She slapped and clawed at her attacker as she continued to scream.
“Taite,” she heard a familiar voice say. “It’s me, calm down.”
Taite did calm and stared at her attacker as her eyes began to focus. When they did she saw her brother, Erec, smiling at her. “Erec!” she shouted and pulled him into a hug. She began to cry, overwhelmed by her emotions and from her enormous relief, not only of being found by her brother, but that he was safe and alive. Erec held her tight, kissing her on the forehead.
“You are alright, darling,” he said.
“How did you find me?” Taite asked.
“Well, I had a little help,” Erec said and Taite felt a cold wet nose nuzzle up under her arm. She pulled away from Erec to see Valko, her pet gray wolf. Valko licked her face and Taite threw her arms around him.
“Valko! I thought you had drowned,” she said.
“He came across one of the elophim, who can apparently speak to animals, and explained that you were here somewhere. Then we all went to look for you.”
Taite looked up from Valko and noticed several men with long golden hair and green and brown clothing standing just up the river bank. “Those are elves?” she asked.
Erec turned to look at the elophim, including Alaric, who stood watching them. “Yes, but don’t call them that. They prefer elophim.”
“I thought they would be smaller,” she mused to herself. Taite looked at her brother and noticed that he wore the same green and brown clothing that the elophim were wearing. “I guess a lot has happened since I last saw you,” she said causing Erec to laugh boisterously.
“Indeed,” he smiled at her. “Come, let us meet them and I can tell you all about it.”
He stood and took her hand, but then stopped with a gasp as she remembered her sister. “Erec, we have to save Terrwyn. I think something bad happened to her at Elwood.”
“Something bad did happen,” Erec said. “She was captured by drakmere, but Willem helped her escape and they are on their way to Dracengard.”
“With Captain Dillan?” Taite said.
“Prince Tybalt?” Erec asked and Taite nodded. “Yes, he escaped as well.”
Taite smiled. “Good, I like him.” Then her face grew very serious. “Terrwyn says she hates him, but I think she really likes him, because he was all she talked about since we met him.” Erec laughed as he stroked his hand down her hair. Taite was extremely relieved to hear that Terrwyn had escaped. Erec leaned down and picked her up gently. She wrapped her arms around him as he carried her down the riverbank toward the elophim.
As they approached, Erec noticed a pack of red wolfs emerge from the forest. They stood silently watching and Erec froze. His eyes darted to Alaric who did not appear concerned in the least. Taite saw them too. “Put me down,” she said.
“Taite, I don’t think…” Erec began, but Taite interrupted.
“The wolves saved me,” she said.
Erec slowly lowered Taite to the ground, but his hand moved to his sword hilt. The lead wolf stopped about twenty feet from them and Valko moved up in between them growling lowly. “It is alright, Valko,” Taite said and Valko calmed. Taite ran past Valko and straight to the red wolf.
“Taite, wait,” Erec said, but she ignored him and flung her arms around the red wolf’s neck.
“Thank you,” she said. Erec watched in amazement as the wolf allowed her to hug him. Taite pulled back and the wolf licked her across the face. Taite laughed as Valko walked up beside her. Valko came right up to the red wolf as if they were both old friends. Valko, being the larger of the two, could have torn the red wolf to shreds, but the smaller wolf did not cower or seem concerned in the least. “This is my friend, Valko,” Taite informed the red wolf as if she were having a tea party. She then pointed at Erec. “And that is my brother, Erec.” Erec caught himself waving, but then quickly lowered his hand, slightly embarrassed.
The red wolf grunted something and Taite hugged him again. “Goodbye,” she said. “I hope to see you again soon.” They all watched as the red wolf trotted off to join his pack. He turned and glanced back at them one last time before leading his pack back into the woods and out of sight.
Taite walked back to Erec followed by Valko. She took his hand and began leading him away while Erec stared at her as if stu
pefied. They walked in silence for a few steps before Erec spoke. “You really can speak to animals?” he asked.
She looked up at him as if he had just asked if her dress were really green. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve been telling you that for years.” He laughed boisterously again as he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her on the cheek. He did not know why he was so surprised, after all he had seen and heard recently, anything was possible.
Chapter 3
Ashleen fell hard. She slipped off of the vine she had tossed down into the cave and dropped the last ten or fifteen feet to land on her back with a thud upon the hard stone below. She instinctively let out an agonizing cry, but quickly muffled it as she remembered where she was. She laid on the rocks for a few moments, gritting her teeth silently through the pain, the stone feeling cold against her naked body.
Ashleen eventually pushed herself up onto her feet and leaned most of her weight against the primitive spear that she had fashioned out of a tree branch and chipped stone head. She squinted in the darkness of the cave seeing little, but clearly hearing the gruff snores of the cave bears that slept all around her.
She was so close to her goal. The Sword of Light was sheathed in a polished white stone atop a mound of rocks, a beam of light from the sky hole above shining down on it, giving it an almost divine feel. Ashleen had attempted to climb down through that sky hole. It had occurred to her, as she stood at the mouth of the cave attempting to summon the courage to enter and face the bears, that the sword must be returned to the cave before each Paladin initiate’s quest. If the Paladin returned the sword by entering and exiting the cave through the mouth then they would have to fight their way through angry cave bears before each and every new initiate’s quest. Certainly, they did not do so and, therefore, there had to be another way in. A safer way. There were only two possibilities, from below or from above. Ashleen had walked away from the mouth and climbed up the side of the rocky hill on top of the cave, where she found the sky hole and peered through, observing the sword below. As she suspected, she also found iron anchors hammered deep into the rock. Ashleen assumed that the Paladin hooked a rope ladder to the anchors in order to climb down and slide the sword back into the stone. Unfortunately, they must have taken the ladder with them as there was no rope to be found near the hole. While looking for the ladder, Ashleen found some long vines growing out of the side of the mountain. She had to use all of her strength and weight to pull the vines loose, but eventually they came free. She climbed down the vines, but quickly discovered that vines are not as easy to climb as rope, especially rope ladders, and she slipped and fell.
Having recovered from her fall, Ashleen stood within reach of the Sword of Light. She reached out her left hand and grabbed the sword by its golden hilt, pulling it straight up and out of the stone. She smiled, proud of herself and all she had overcome to recover the Sword of Light, but her smile quickly faded as she realized she had only completed half of the quest. She still had a long and painful journey back to the White Fortress, if she managed to escape the cave alive. She was unable to hold on to the vine while climbing down, so it would most likely be impossible for her to use it to climb out, especially carrying the sword in one hand. That meant she had to leave through the mouth of the cave, past an unknown number of cave bears. Sure, they appeared to be sleeping, but how soundly did they sleep?
Ashleen sat down on the cold stone, shivering as her bare skin pressed against it. She closed her eyes and waited, resting and allowing her eyes to adjust to the dark. She even fell asleep for a second and started to topple over, but awoke with a jerk catching herself. After about twenty minutes, she opened her eyes and stood. Her night vision had improved dramatically, and she could see the large mounds of cave bears lying about the floor of the cave, sleeping. She slowly climbed down the rocky mound, silently wincing with each painful step as the rocks dug into her feet, causing them to bleed once more and leaving a trail of red footprints behind.
She soon reached the bottom of the mound and crept silently between two large, snoring bears as she gripped her spear in her right hand and the sword in her left. She took slow, soft steps—her bare feet making little sound against the stone—as she crept through the dark tunnel as silently as she could. She was in no rush at this point, because time would not matter if she was mauled to death by bears.
Soon she saw the light at the end of the tunnel and smiled to herself. She was almost there. Against her better judgment she quickened her pace a bit, anxious to be out of the cave and on her way home to the safety and comfort of her soft bed and a dining hall filled with the most succulent foods she could imagine. She took a step, feeling the cold stone beneath her feet. She took another step and this time felt soft fur.
The cave bear awoke with a yelp before rolling over onto its feet. It looked up at Ashleen who stood petrified with fear. The bear rose up onto its hind legs, standing a head taller than Ashleen. It growled ferociously at her and she glanced around to see the other bears beginning to stir. Her pulse quickened and she began to panic as the thought that she was about to die flashed through her mind. What had she been thinking by attempting to join the Paladin? Her mother was right, this was no place for a lady. Oh, how she wanted her mother to hold her and protect her! Suddenly, the bear reached out and swiped her face, knocking her to the hard stone floor. Her cheek stung and she reached up, touching it with her finger tips and feeling the warm blood flow out of the deep gashes.
The shock and pain of the attack triggered something in Ashleen and the panic and self doubt suddenly ceased as she began to react completely on instinct. She rolled over and leapt to her feet quickly. The bear growled at her again, but before it could finish Ashleen shoved the spear deep into its shoulder. She was aiming for its throat, but the excitement of the fight threw off her aim. The bear reared back screaming in pain and Ashleen took the opportunity to bolt around it toward the light in front of her. She dashed out of the mouth of the cave and her feet touched soft grass a few yards later. Still gripping the Sword of Light in her left hand, she sprinted as fast as she could, the rush of adrenalin erasing the pain in her feet.
Ashleen heard heavy footsteps and rough breath behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see the furious cave bear barreling down the hill after her, the spear still protruding from its shoulder. She was no match for its speed and the bear quickly overtook her as she turned to face it. She thrust the sword forward into the bear’s chest as it lunged at her, its mighty jaw clamping down onto her right shoulder. She screamed as she felt the bear’s sharp teeth tear into her flesh.
Ashleen awoke screaming in horror. Sir Tomfrey knelt beside her, his hand on her right shoulder. She calmed herself as she realized she was safe in her tent and she had only been dreaming about her fight with the bear. She reminded herself that the bear was dead—its skin was now a rug in her bedroom at home. She shot a glance at Tomfrey’s hand on her shoulder. He removed it quickly.
“I am sorry, Commander. I forgot the bear bit your there. Are you alright?” he asked.
She nodded then rubbed her eyes. “My shoulder is fine. I was dreaming about the bear. Killing it,” she said. “I am sorry.”
“Do not be,” he said. “After the experiences you have had the last few weeks and the one’s you will have in this war in the months and years to come, you may never sleep soundly again,” he told her. “None of us do.” Ashleen smiled at him. “But you need to get up and dressed for battle. Sir Auberon sent me for you. A sizable force is coming down from the north. Looks to be the wrong side.”
A short time later Ashleen, Sir Auberon, and Sir Tomfrey sat in the middle of the road upon their white mounts flanked by two other Paladin on either side, each wearing the customary golden armor. The sun was just beginning to rise when they heard hoof beats thundering down the road toward them. Soon Ashleen saw two columns of cavalry turn a corner. They numbered about a hundred men and behind them trotted a gaggle of about fifty drakmere. The horsemen reined to a
stop approximately fifty feet from the Paladin.
“What’s this?” asked the man leading the right column.
“I am Princess Ashleen of the House Caerwyn,” Ashleen said firmly. “Please identify yourself.”
The man snickered. He looked back at his men and draks feeling confident that he could run down this little princess even if she was accompanied by six Paladin. He turned back toward Ashleen, a sly smile upon his face. “I am Lord…” but he was unable to finish. Just as he began to speak an arrow flew through the back of his neck protruding from his throat. He gurgled with eyes wide and lifeless as he fell forward off of his horse. His men and draks had little time to react before a hail of arrows penetrated their ranks and more than half of them laid dead on the road before the first even had a chance to draw his sword. Then the Paladin came out of the trees upon their horses, swords drawn. Ashleen and her escorts joined the fray, fighting and flaying the men and drakmere. When it was done, twenty of the Paladin lay dead or dying, but only one of the enemy remained alive.
Sir Auberon dragged the thin, bearded man over to Ashleen. He had been kept alive because he looked important. He wore long black robes and a long, yet scraggly, black beard, but his head was shaved. Auberon threw him to the ground at Ashleen’s feet.
“Who are you?” Ashleen demanded.
“I am Castar Astroff, the Great,” the man said, pushing himself up to his knees as he began to laugh.
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