Until I Sleep (Alora Chronicles Book 1)

by Lara Ann

  I wasn’t really that cold, but I wasn’t going to turn down the chance to be close to Wyn. I grate-fully snuggled against his chest as he put his arms around me. I could feel his taut muscles beneath his shirt. My mind began to imagine scenarios where he would lean down and kiss me. I wrapped my arms around him and breathed in his enticing scent, a mixture of pine and something woodsy. I was just thinking I could stand like this all day, when I realised that Wyn had spoken.

  “Uh, sorry what did you say?” I said embarrassed that I’d been caught daydreaming.

  “It’s alright, it wasn’t important.”

  Damn, what would Wyn have said that he wouldn’t want to repeat? I hoped I hadn’t missed anything important. Maybe he had admitted to his feelings for me? Me and my stupid daydreams. I’d have to stay in the present.

  “Are you feeling warmer now Ash?”

  “Getting there,” I replied finally looking up at Wyn.

  I was standing on higher ground than Wyn on the rocky floor, so his face was closer than I expected. He was looking down at me with his amazing smile. One of his adorable dimples was visible. My heart sped up to a gallop in my chest. I hoped he couldn’t hear it, it sounded very loud to me. Wyn reached out and tenderly brushed a stray lock of hair off my face. He moved closer and I was sure he was going to kiss me. There was a loud snort as Thunder nudged Wyn from behind.

  “Thunder can smell smoke. He thinks the Elves may have started a fire somewhere.”

  It was hard not to feel disappointed at the badly timed interruption. I was positive Wyn had been about to kiss me. Wyn stepped away and walked to the mouth of the cave.

  “We’d better go and check it out. You stay here, I’ll be back soon.”

  “No way – I’m definitely coming with you. Where you go, I go.”

  “I won’t put your life in danger if I can help it Ashlee.”

  “Well you can’t help it. If you go without me, I’ll just follow you on foot.”

  “I guess you leave me no choice then.”

  I suppressed a smug smile at Wyn’s quick capitulation.

  Thunder had made his way back into the water and Wyn jumped on his back and positioned me in front of him.

  “Can’t we go faster if I sit behind you,” I enquired.

  “Yes, but it leaves you more exposed,” Wyn replied tersely.

  “Oh, but it’s okay for you to risk an arrow in the back is it?”

  “Don’t argue with me on this Ash, you won’t win this one.” Any argument was silenced effectively as Wyn chose that moment to go back under the waterfall. I was sure he’d done it purposely to end the conversation.

  We remained silent as we headed back the way we’d come. Nothing looked familiar to me, but I was sure Wyn and Thunder knew where they were headed.

  “Is that...” I trailed off seeing the body of a dark Elf lying on the ground ahead.

  Wyn quickly dismounted and bent down over the body.

  “Looks like he hit his head on a rock when he fell off his horse.”

  “Is he dead?”

  “Yes. It is most unfortunate – we try to get the dark Elves to renounce their beliefs. There are too few of our kind as it is,” Wyn said seriously.

  “I can see the smoke now,” I said looking through the trees. Anything to avoid looking at the dead body. I’d never seen a dead body up close before and it was freaking me out.

  “I hate to leave him here like this, but we’re still in danger.”

  We headed back through the forest towards Jonik’s place. As we entered the clearing, I could see his beautiful cottage was well ablaze. Flames licked hungrily at the wooden structure, and the roof was already well alight.

  “Jonik won’t be trapped in there will he?”

  “I don’t think even the dark Elves would stoop so low. I’ll need to scout around to figure out what happened. Stay on the horse.”

  “What about all the other horses?” I asked noticing that the gate to their paddock was open and they were all gone.

  Wyn was silent for a while, listening.

  “They are safe in the forest,” he answered tersely.

  I sat quietly as Wyn walked around the clearing intently studying the ground. He walked slowly towards the road. Thunder started to follow and I had to grab a large fistful of mane to stop from sliding off. It felt very precarious on the big horse without Wyn’s arms to steady me.

  “Do you know what happened,” I asked as Thunder stopped next to Wyn by the side of the gravel road.

  ‘It looks like they took Jonik and headed back towards the city.”

  “Do you think we can catch them?”

  “I’m not sure but we have to try. If they reach the castle, it will make it almost impossible to free him.”

  “Can’t you ask their horses to slow down or something?”

  “I have tried to communicate with them, but they’re ignoring me. It seems they blame me for the Elf’s death.”

  “That wasn’t your fault. You were just trying to protect us.”

  “Animals can’t reason as we do, all they know is that my request caused the death of their mas-ter. The fact that we were fleeing for our lives is not something they can factor in. They are simple creatures after all.”

  Thunder gave Wyn a hard shove causing him to stumble.

  “Sorry boy, no disrespect intended.”

  “I don’t think he agrees with you.”

  “Thunder is different from other horses. His mind has been linked with mine for so long that his thoughts have taken on a complexity that other animals lack.”

  “What do we do next?”

  “We will try and catch them before they get too far.”

  We were soon galloping down the road; I was sitting behind Wyn, now that there was no threat from behind us. I just hoped we could rescue Jonik. It was bad enough that his lovely home had been destroyed but I shuddered at the thought of him being injured or even worse. Wyn had assured me that there was no danger of the fire spreading. All Jonik’s possessions including his beautiful table would have surely been destroyed.

  My eyes felt tired and gritty. It had been a very stressful day. My butt thumped painfully against the horses back with each stride. I desperately hoped I could hold it together until we rescued Jonik. We slowed to a trot as we neared the top of a small hill.

  “Thunder senses other horses close by. We’ll need to use extreme caution from here,” Wyn said quietly.

  We left the road and began to follow a narrow path through the trees.

  “What’s the plan when we find them?” I whispered.

  “Hopefully they’re using the now spare horse to carry Jonik. Thunder has agreed to try to separate that horse from the rest and get it off into the trees. Your job will be to untie Jonik and then both of you can escape to Elma’s house. I’ll meet you there.”

  “And you’ll just take on the other two Elves by yourself I suppose?”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

  “Just like you never worry about me huh?”

  “Something like that,” Wyn replied cheekily.

  We could see the group of Elves now through the trees. Jonik was on the spare horse, just as Wyn had hoped. His hands were tied behind him, but his feet were still free. He had a blindfold on. Luckily for us, they were traveling fairly slowly. They obviously weren’t expecting anyone to be coming after them.

  We overtook them, still hidden by the trees. When we came to a sharp bend in the path, we stopped and waited just out of sight of the road. I stayed well back, waiting for Thunder to bring Jonik to me so I could untie him.

  As they came around the bend, Thunder charged the group. The horses all reared in panic as the wild-eyed stallion charged in among them. Jonik fell back off his horse having been surprised and unable to hang on with his hands tied.

  “So much for plan A,” I said to myself, as I ran out to try and rescue the fallen Elf.

  In the confusion, as the remaining two Elves tried to
regain control of their horses, I saw Wyn leap onto the back of one of the horses. He threw the rider down onto the ground. As I reached Jonik, I saw the fallen Elf get up and grab his bow from the road. Wyn was engaged in some sort of hand-to-hand combat on horseback and was totally unaware of the now armed Elf.

  “Look out Wyn,” I yelled frantically.

  Thunder had other ideas as he leapt into the fray. He turned sharply and dealt a stunning blow with both hooves to the Elf standing on the ground. The Elf sank to the ground, the bow falling from his lifeless hands.

  Now that it was a fair fight, I turned my attention to Jonik. I quickly pulled off his blindfold. His hands were tightly bound and I struggled to get the knots untied. Jonik’s eyes were open, but they looked slightly unfocused. I hoped he didn’t have concussion from falling off the horse.

  “Are you okay Jonik?”

  “Ah I think so, there are two of you right?”

  “I think you might have a concussion, just lie still while I get this knot undone.” I finally got the rope free, and rubbed Jonik’s wrists where the rope had cut off his circulation.

  “Ow that smarts,” Jonik complained as the blood came rushing back into his fingers. “Where’s Wyndelleu?”

  I turned to see how the fight was going, just in time to see the Dark Elf turn and push his horse into a gallop towards the city. He must have decided escape was his best option. Having seen Wyn fight, I thought he was probably right. Wyn immediately gave chase still astride the borrowed horse. As he caught up to the fleeing Elf he somehow managed to climb onto the saddle of his horse. I wondered how he didn’t fall riding like that. He leapt from the saddle and took out the other rider. They both crashed to the ground. Wyn had the advantage of being on top, the other Elf broke his fall. He quickly disarmed the stunned Elf and tied his hands behind his back.

  I helped Jonik to sit up as Wyn walked back towards us, forcing the unhappy Elf in front of him. He paused at the fallen Elf that Thunder had taken down. Thunder was still standing guard. After a quick inspection, he made the Elf sit with his dead comrade, and came over to us.

  “You’re bleeding,” I exclaimed, noticing a gash above Wyn’s eye, which was still freely running with fresh blood.

  “It’s nothing, don’t panic. Are you alright Jonik?”

  “Never better,” said Jonik woozily. “Who are you again?” He said laughing.

  “I think he hit his head pretty hard, he’s probably concussed.”

  “We’d better take him to Elma’s house. I hope that he can remember the way. Come on old friend, let’s get you up on a horse.”

  The other three horses were still nearby, I went and grabbed the nearest horse and dragged it over to Wyn and Jonik. Wyn helped Jonik into the saddle.

  “Are you alright to ride Jonik?” Wyn asked.

  “I’ll be fine, let’s get going.”

  “What are we going to do with the dark Elves?” I asked.

  “Only one survived unfortunately, we’ll take him to Sanctuary. It’s where we keep the Elves for rehabilitation. But firstly, we need to get Jonik somewhere he can rest.”

  I went and fetched the other two horses, as Wyn did the more unpleasant task, of dragging the body of the dead Elf Thunder had kicked, off into the forest.

  “Can you ride a horse?” Wyn asked me.

  “Uh no, I’m afraid that’s not one of my city gal skills. Perhaps you can teach me? Looks like it might come in handy here.”

  Wyn quickly looked over all the horses and helped me up onto a smallish chestnut.

  “I hope you told him to be nice to me Wyn?”

  “Ah, something like that.”

  I hoped he hadn’t threatened the poor horse. I grabbed the reins, not really sure what to do next.

  After putting the last Dark Elf on a horse, Wyn nimbly vaulted onto Thunder’s back and guided him to walk beside me. My horse automatically started walking.

  “How am I supposed to learn how to ride, if you control my horse for me?” I complained.

  “Good point.” Wyn laughed.

  Chapter 16

  By the time we got to Elma’s house, I had a much better idea of how to control the horse. Wyn was a good teacher, explaining how to hold my hands and move my legs to tell the horse what I wanted. I was especially impressed, as he didn’t need to do any of those things when he rode Thunder.

  Jonik appeared to have recovered somewhat and managed to dismount from his horse. We followed him up to the backdoor of another quaint little cottage. Pretty flowers surrounded the front of the house, in a cascading riot of bright colours. Ivy climbed up around the front and side walls, helping it to blend into its treed surrounds. The roof was steeply pitched with dark earth coloured shingles.

  We had left the horses grazing contentedly on the back lawn, after removing their saddles and bridles. Wyn assured me that Thunder would keep the horses close by. He would also keep an eye on the dark Elf, although Wyn had tied his feet and hands together to keep him from trying to do anything foolish.

  Jonik knocked on the door and I finally got my first look at a real female Elf. Elma was slim with long chestnut hair that covered her ears. She was wearing a simple long dark blue dress with a square neckline. I thought she was very pretty and could immediately picture her and Jonik together. She took one look at our bruised and bloodied party and quickly ushered us inside.

  Elma’s cottage had an open plan layout, very similar to Jonik’s. However, there was more of a feminine feel, with flowers on the table and colourful rugs and cushions on the simple wooden furniture. Elma helped Jonik to sit on one of the comfortable chairs.

  “Are you alright Jonik? What on earth happened?” Elma asked worriedly.

  “Dark Elves – they burnt down my house and kidnapped me. Luckily Wyndelleu and Ashlee caught up to them and rescued me.”

  “Oh my goodness! I saw the smoke earlier, but I just assumed someone was doing some forest clearing. You all could have been killed! How can I ever thank you Wyndelleu and Ashlee?”

  “There is no debt incurred, Jonik was only in danger because we were there. If anything you should be blaming us for what happened,” Wyn said seriously.

  “Don’t be ridiculous Wyndelleu. It is a dark day indeed if Elves start turning away those in need,” Jonik huffed.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” I said hesitatingly. “But do you have anything I could use to clean Wyn’s wound?”

  “I’m terribly sorry, I don’t know where my head is at,” exclaimed Elma. “Of course I’ll get my medicine box straight away.”

  I used a soft cloth to clean the cut on Wyn’s forehead. I was relieved to see it wasn’t too deep. Elma had a special healing balm to apply. I remembered how quickly the Poltin had worked before. Unfortunately it had also made me act slightly crazy. At least that was only a human reaction. Although I wouldn’t mind if Wyn was relaxed enough to tell me how he really felt about me. He was much better than I was at covering his true feelings with those of honour and duty.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked Wyn hopefully. If I was lucky the Poltin would make him more uninhibited.

  “Much better, you’d make a wonderful healer Ash.” Wyn’s gaze was clear and direct, no sign of any delirium from the Poltin.

  “Are we safe here?” I asked. “I’d hate to put Elma in danger.”

  “We should be quite safe for now, none of the Elves escaped to tell what happened here. So Rothlyn has no idea we’re even in Alora. If Jonik is happy to let it be known that his house fire was a terrible accident, no one should even be sent to investigate.”

  “I’d much rather avoid a visit from Rothlyn,” Jonik agreed.

  “What do we do now?” I asked Wyn.

  “Once we’ve rested, I think we should take the prisoner and see if we can find Argus and Fin-nan. That way we can see if they know any more about my mother.”

  It was nice to spend a few hours relaxing for a change. Elma was an enchanting hostess; she was so sweet and kind. I was so glad
we’d been able to rescue Jonik. I couldn’t imagine having to tell her that Jonik had been taken prisoner. Wyn sat next to me on one of the comfortable cushioned lounge chairs. There was only just enough room for two so my left side was pressed up tightly against Wyn. I can’t deny that I was enjoying the feeling of having him so close. Elma was telling us the story of how she met Jonik. It was quite funny really, she’d been selling some of her apples at the market when Jonik had passed by leading two colts he had for sale. He’d stopped to talk to someone and one of the young colts had been over-eager for some apples and had spilled the whole basket everywhere.

  As Elma was telling the story, Wyn began absently playing with my hand. I tried not to react to his touch as I didn’t want him to stop. I was sure my breathing had sped up and I tried to focus on taking slow deep breaths. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. Wyn looked deep in thought. I don’t think he was paying any attention to Elma’s story. I felt a pleasant tingly sensation all through my body as Wyn ran his fingers up and down the back of my hand. I realised that I’d missed the last part of the conversation. I looked at Elma to see if I had missed anything important. She was looking expectantly at me.

  “I’m sorry Elma,” I said. “I think I missed the last part of the conversation.”

  “I just asked how you met Wyndelleu.”

  “Oh, well it was my...” I stopped, I wasn’t sure whether to tell her where I was from, or how much of what was going on. I knew Wyn had told Jonik some of it, but I sensed that was unusual.

  “Actually Wyn tells it better,” I said giving his hand a firm squeeze.

  Wyn looked up, his eyes coming back into sharp focus. He looked down at our hands. I was sure he would let go of my hand but he didn’t.

  “I met Ash in the forest when I was out riding. She’d gotten lost looking for mushrooms, so I offered her a ride home,” Wyn said lying smoothly.

  “Oh that’s sweet,” Elma said. “Are you going to be married soon?”

  “No, we’re just good friends,” Wyn replied dropping my hand. I felt the sting of rejection, even though I knew that was the way things had to be. Somehow I kept hoping that things would change and we could be together. If friendship was all I could ever have with Wyn, I would take it over losing him for good.