The Raiden

by Shelley Cass

  “I can’t stand to hear all of this!” one cried fretfully. “I remember all of this but there is something telling me not to believe it!”

  Another one collapsed back upon his bed and moaned, his head in his hands.

  “It’s all true,” said a hollow voice from a bed by the wall, and I noticed the bearded leader who had stabbed Dalin.

  “I feel the same,” cried another man dejectedly, and sank down against the wash stand.

  “Why would they bring us to their City if they didn’t want to hurt us?” said another, his face blanched.

  “Unless they weren’t enemies,” Thorin finished for him. “And just wanted to help.”

  “So … so we are the threat to you?” one asked me, mortified and blinking around at the pale faces of those around him.

  “You aren’t the villains,” I said compassionately. “Your King is. Darziates has blinded you, and as his soldiers you had no choice but to obey.”

  “I know,” said the bearded leader in a flat tone, eyes on the floor. “I’ve felt that and not admitted it for as long as I can remember. But we had to submit to him … our families …”

  The room fell into silence as each man sank into his thoughts.

  “For tonight you can sleep here and get used to things,” I told them gently, choosing to withdraw to let them think. “In the morning if you feel up to it you can meet all of the friends waiting to greet you in the City above.”

  “Gods,” one of them muttered in disbelief, looking winded.

  The vines over the door didn’t close again after I walked through them. After all, these men weren’t really prisoners, and Noal and Asha followed me out.

  Chapter Thirty

  Dalin

  “You’ve been asleep for two days,” Chloris told me. “You must take things slowly Raiden.”

  I felt so fragile as I squinted at her with one eye swollen half closed, that even the shine of her silvery white Elvish hair was too dazzling in the sun.

  “More like I’ve been made to sleep for a couple of days,” I grimaced as I sat up stiffly.

  “Yes. And if you’re not careful of your health, I might call on the Nymphs to send you to sleep again,” Chloris warned.

  “I will be entirely careful,” I promised, and waited until after the Elf had left before kicking off the sheets and pulling myself up to face the looking glass in my room.

  “Gods,” I muttered, touching the puffy, purple bruises and jagged slices along my cheekbone, and observing the skin stretched over my damaged eyelid. I could only see through a slit in the swollen purple mountain it had become.

  I found more bruises in a stunning array of colours when I lifted the clean linen shirt I’d been dressed in, and knew that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate any of the fitted garments I’d been given to wear in the Forest so far.

  Instead I foraged around until I found a loose tunic and my weather stained trousers. I managed to pull the pants up and to step into my boots with the aid of my good arm, but I cursed when I tried to dress myself in the tunic and felt my arm throb and burn.

  “You know I’m sure Chloris actually meant for you to be careful when she said that you should be careful,” Noal commented from the doorway.

  “I’m not doing anything strenuous,” I told him.

  “Ah,” he nodded thoughtfully. “That’s why that nasty tunic is getting the better of you.”

  I sighed with exasperation. “Are you going to help, or reprimand?”

  He grinned. “I don’t know why I bother,” he said as he came across to help me drag the tunic over my head, threading my arms through.

  “Did you let Ailill put stitches in me again?” I asked him with distaste as I felt my skin tighten against them with the movement.

  Noal ducked his head guiltily. “Your mother always told me not to argue with the healers.”

  “That was in regards to you. She never told you not to protest on my behalf.” I shook my head at him, and ran my fingers through my hair to try to bring it into some semblance.

  “So what are you planning?” he asked finally when I was dressed and headed for the steps. “Seeing as you won’t stay in bed.”

  I buckled on my sword more out of habit than anything else, finding it difficult with one good arm. “I don’t know. I just feel like getting out and about.”

  “I shall accompany you out as well as about then, my brother,” he declared cheerfully, following me as I descended.

  But I regretted stepping back out into the City immediately, as I at once saw two Krall warriors standing across from our tower, surrounded by a mass of curious Nymphs.

  “Seriously?” I paused in shock. “It seems like every time I wake up a new Krall warrior is walking about the City.”

  “They’ve all come to their senses much like Thorin did,” Noal explained calmly. “For the past two days they’ve been settling in while you’ve been recovering.”

  “Of course.”

  “Really Dalin. The Elves and Nymphs have accepted these men and are trying to help them adjust. I don’t mind them.”

  “In two days you’ve got to know the people who wanted to take us to Darziates?” I asked wearily. “How about the big one who tried to chop your head off?”

  “I’ve talked to most of them,” Noal answered patiently. “And you should too. Then you would feel what I do, that they really are different now.”

  “Where is Kiana then?” I tried to change the conversation.

  Noal sighed. “Asha convinced Kiana to go with her to her favourite water pool.”

  I nodded. “Should we visit?”

  “The Nymphs will cheer you up,” Noal answered in agreement, and we made our way into the quiet part of the City where the water pool was.

  However, again, I regretted my choice when I found that not only was Kiana there, but also Thorin and four of his comrades.

  Asha squealed with delight and whizzed out of the water towards me at top speed. “You’re awake!” she cried, wrapping her little arms about my throat as I caught her one armed. “Your beautiful body is all in one piece!” she crooned. “Though it’s a shame about your face.” She wrinkled her nose at my mountainous eye.

  Flash and Rebel shot across and pumped me on the back in a congratulatory way.

  “Well done on giving us a challenge in seeing who could make you sleep the longest,” Flash praised my efforts. “It was quite disconcerting every time you woke up a few hours before schedule. Nova may never forgive you.”

  “The One might not forgive him now either,” Rebel chortled then, and I looked over to notice that the group sitting on the opposite side of the water had stopped talking, and Kiana had a dark expression on her face.

  “Good morning,” I greeted her across the water.

  “You were meant to stay in bed,” she replied warningly.

  “Perhaps I am sleepwalking,” I answered. “Gods know I’ve been pumped with enough magic to make that happen.” I shot a dry one eyed look at Flash.

  “Are you going to swim with us?” Asha crooned. “I’ll help you get your shirt off.” She immediately started unlacing the front of my tunic.

  I could see by the startled warriors’ faces that they hadn't yet got used to such actions from this gorgeous, tiny being.

  “I wouldn’t,” Rebel warned. “Ailill would just kill you if you wet his stitches.”

  Asha, paused, and then exhaled dramatically. “Another day then.” She turned to Noal. “But handsome here has no excuse.”

  “Oh all right then,” Noal said with hearty self-sacrifice, and quickly tore off his shirt and boots to chase the squealing Nymphs. He dived like a whale, sending each of the Nymphs tumbling about in the foamed water from the shock waves.

  “Well?” Kiana lifted her eyebrow at me from across the rock pool.

  “Oh Frarshk,” I said under my breath, and began to walk around to the group.

  Kiana patted the grass beside herself at the end of their line along the bank.
/>   “This is Dalin,” she told the soldiers calmly. “The Forest dwellers refer to him as the Raiden.”

  For once they were not encased in spiked armour, and appeared more human.

  “I’ve got a bruise that says we’ve met, I think,” said one of the men with a wide smile, tapping his shock of curls.

  I nodded coolly and sat down, feigning great interest in the playful banter going on in the water as Kiana resumed the conversation she’d been having with them about Krall training routines.

  Eventually I laid back upon the grass and closed my eyes, ignoring them completely while my arm throbbed horribly.

  “You look spent,” I heard Kiana say, and realised I must’ve fallen into sleep. “You know, your face really is a mess.”

  She was leaning over me, shielding my eyes from the sun with her hand, and I frowned at the light.

  “It’s afternoon already?”

  She nodded. “You might as well have stayed in bed after all.”

  “Gods, I’m sick of sleeping, but I can’t seem to stop,” I moaned, pushing myself up with my good arm.

  “That’s because you kept forcing the Nymphs to outdo each other,” said Noal, who was now dry and sitting next to Thorin. “They gave you a few really impressive blasts to keep you unconscious.”

  “That explains it,” I agreed, sitting forward and rubbing my forehead.

  “I could hardly see straight when they put me to sleep just once,” one of the soldiers joined in politely then.

  “Yes. Well, I might walk it off,” I said by way of excusing myself, and pulled myself to my feet.

  “I’ll come with you!” Asha chirped, kissing Noal on the nose and then flying across to hover next to me.

  Kiana stood too. “A walk would be good,” she agreed.

  “Are we going to visit the little man?” Asha asked as we began to walk back around the water. “Agrudek seems even more agitated lately.”

  Already with some distance from the new invaders, and with chattering Asha and Kiana by my side, my mood was lightening with every step.

  Chapter Thirty One

  Noal

  “You should all stop by at my place tonight,” Flash remarked innocently to the five men of Krall sitting along the edge of the water.

  “It’ll be fun,” Rebel encouraged, just as adorable as his mischievous friend.

  I snorted and flicked some water at them. “Don’t be fooled by their coaxing,” I warned the warriors. “Whenever I join them I wake up the next morning surrounded in empty Nymph liquor bottles and with a headache like an axe to the forehead.”

  “You’ve always had fun getting yourself into that state though,” Flash protested good-naturedly, rolling over to lay on his back with his hands cradling his head in mid-air.

  “Have I?” I asked. “I can’t remember.”

  “Sounds like I’d enjoy spending time with you tonight,” one of the men grinned at the Nymphs. His name was Tane, and he couldn’t seem to stop being cheerful to save his life. It seemed that everything about him was energetic, even his hair, which was wildly curly.

  “That’s my boy!” crowed Flash joyously.

  “Actually I am a father,” Tane demurred at the ‘boy’ title.

  “Aww Rebel, do you think he’s old enough to drink with us?” Flash asked his orange haired friend.

  “Dunno. It’s pretty potent stuff for a child to handle,” Rebel speculated. “But the baby over here survived,” he added on the bright side, nodding at me.

  “Child?” objected one called Wolf, looking mildly offended. “Most of us have reached our twentieth year and beyond. Thale has reached his thirtieth year.”

  Rebel held his stomach and rolled about in the air laughing. “Flash, do you really think these novices can handle it?” he wiped at his eyes exaggeratedly.

  “Novices?” Wolf was hurt. “Now that’s a bit harsh.”

  One particularly massive man leaned back on the grass on an elbow. He happened to be the one who had been trying to remove my head before Dalin had fought him off and, after recently apologising profusely, he’d introduced himself as Vulcan.

  Vulcan coughed subtly. “I was just wondering,” he said. “If we are so fresh in your eyes, how old does that make the both of you?”

  Flash looked him straight in the eye, suddenly becoming serious. “I was in my fifteenth year when Darziates chased the Nymphs into the Forest.”

  Purdor, the last warrior of the group by the water, spluttered and Rebel obligingly thumped him on the back. “But that would make you …”

  Flash nodded and winked a silver eye. “Over five hundred years old. But don’t tell Asha, she thinks I’m older. She likes older Nymphs.”

  There was a stunned silence.

  “You hold your age well,” Vulcan complimented him finally in a polite voice.

  “You hold your age well?” I echoed him with a chuckle.

  “Well what would you say to that?” Vulcan defended. “They look like infants.”

  “That’s so that big folk like yourselves underestimate us and wonder what went wrong while we tear you to shreds.” Flash grinned nastily, and his sharply pointed teeth abruptly seemed a lot more sinister.

  I remembered watching the Nymphs ripping through the throats of the ape beasts in the Cursed Valley, and the Krall soldiers now glanced at each other with sudden unease.

  “We meant no offense, Flash,” Thorin told the child-like Nymph in a placating tone.

  And Flash’s expression rapidly transformed again as he burst into peals of laughter.

  “See?” he chortled to Rebel, who was guffawing as he circled us too. “This bunch can’t handle us. You should’ve seen your faces!” Flash roared at the soldiers, nearly falling out of the air.

  “You should’ve seen yours,” I reprimanded him, swatting at his leg as it dangled near me.

  “They know I’d never hurt my friends. We never even hurt them when they were enemies,” Flash complained, floating lazily down to stand on my shoulder.

  “Sure we knew,” Tane said weakly, and glanced at the relieved faces around him. “But you reminded me of why I’m so glad we’ve become your friends.”

  “Because of my liquor?” Flash asked distractedly, suddenly noticing a golden haired female Nymph in the distance. Then without warning he abandoned us, his eyes fixed on her with delight as he hurriedly shot through the air to get to her.

  Rebel chuckled. “Asha will kill him,” then he sat bolt straight, his own eyes becoming big.

  “What’s wrong?” Wolf asked him with concern.

  But the Nymph didn’t reply before he shot after a second lady Nymph now wandering past where Flash and the golden haired Nymph were in an intimate embrace.

  “They’re likable things,” Tane chuckled.

  “They certainly don’t waste time in greeting each other,” Purdor remarked, noticing how quickly Rebel and Flash had closed in on their new partners with rather seductive motions.

  But soon Flash and Rebel came zooming back towards us, having somehow forgotten their romantic ventures, and having found the time to start a quarrel that involved cheerful play wrestling.

  Rebel gleefully pulled Flash into a flip in the air by yanking on his silver hair, and Flash repaid the favour.

  “Gods they’re amazing,” Wolf laughed as we watched them whirl themselves into a blur of colour and small limbs. But before more than a few moments had passed, the two Nymphs floated back over to us chattering about the night’s gathering as if they’d never broken from that conversation.

  “Well, anyway,” Rebel said as he glided down to the ground next to Thorin. “This infant is ready to drink all of you big manly men under the table.”

  Vulcan snorted. “You’re on.”

  Rebel smiled fearsomely. “Bet I can outlast all sixteen of you.”

  “I’ll round up the lads and bring them to your place and we’ll see,” Wolf agreed to the challenge, rubbing his hands together.

  But Thorin was
looking at Flash now with a frown. “Is he alright?” Thorin asked and we all followed his gaze to where the Nymph had been zooming about doing crazy somersaults, though now he’d abruptly stopped mid-air.

  I shrugged. “That’s what happens. The Nymphs use so much energy all of the time that sometimes they just fall down on the spot and sleep to recharge.”

  “Gods!” Purdor had looked down to find Rebel had also stopped and was now snoring gently next to Thorin. “Rebel was just talking to us a moment ago.”

  We watched as Flash slowly drifted down from the air, already asleep before he’d reached the ground.

  I nodded at their amazed faces. “It’s best to watch where you step around here,” I warned. “If you look carefully there’s often a bunch of Nymphs burrowed in the grass all about the place. And as soon as they’re awake they’ve got double the energy they had before.”

  “Are you coming tonight?” Vulcan asked then, sitting up and stretching his arms.

  “Course I am,” I grinned. “Drinking with Nymphs is the most fun you’ll ever have, even if they can drink more than I ever thought possible.”

  Tane clapped me on the back. “I think we’re going to get along.”

  Wolf nodded. “I never thought I’d like an Awyalknian,” he admitted.

  “I never thought that Elves and Nymphs were real,” groaned Purdor. “But they’re all around me now too.”

  “I never thought I’d be glad to see someone magical,” Thorin mused. “But it turns out not all magical beings are like Agrona and Darziates.”

  There was silence for a moment as the tone became serious.

  “Come on Thorin, I’m dashing and funny, but I’m not magical,” I said, batting my eyes at him in good humour.

  They chuckled and the mood lightened.

  “Awyalknians being friends … drinks with magical beings … I guess more bizarre things have happened,” Wolf shrugged.

  “It’s true,” I agreed. “I’ve stopped bothering to be shocked these days, after all that’s happened to us so far.”

  They looked at me questioningly, but I didn’t explain further about our Quest, the prophecies and why Darziates had sent them to catch us in the first place. Instead, I pushed myself up to my feet and stretched.