by David Ekrut
“One more time,” Mother said. “What is the best way to kill a vampire?”
A flash of light appeared before her, and Zarah jumped backward. Rather, she willed herself backward at a rapid pace. She stopped when she recognized the face in front of her.
“Elwin,” she breathed.
He took hold of each of her arms. There was something different in his touch. His purity was still there, but there was a taint. It emanated from his shoulder. He was wounded. Dark lines covered his face and spread thinly over the rest of his body.
She heard a low voice laughing in the distance.
“Elwin,” Mother said. “What are you doing here? Wait... What is that? You are tainted.”
“I have nowhere left!” he said. “Nowhere is safe! He is going to take me!”
“Elwin!” Zarah said. “What is going on? What is wrong with your shoulder?”
“When I escaped,” Elwin said, “some bone fragment from the cage pierced my shoulder. It didn’t heal properly. My body is not safe. I no longer have a sanctuary, and Abaddon can get to me there.”
Elwin looked over his shoulder, toward the tree line. “They are coming.”
“I don’t see anyone,” Zarah said. “Who is coming?”
“Elwin,” Mother said. “Where are you right now? Where is your body?”
“We have just arrived to the mountains. Daki said that we could arrive in Goldspire within half a tenday or so. Do you hear the woman singing?”
“Daki,” Zarah said. “Who is Daki? What woman?”
“They are here,” Elwin said, and he flew straight up.
Zarah could only see an empty field and the trees beyond the clearing. “Elwin, wait!”
He was less than a dozen paces above the ground and darkness enveloped him.
“ELWIN!” Zarah screamed. “Mother do something!”
Zarah started to fly after him, but stopped as the darkness vanished, taking Elwin with it.
Floating above her body, Zarah stared into the empty night trying to make sense of what she had seen. Gone. Elwin was just … gone. The sun began to shine its first rays of light on the edge of the horizon.
A new day was coming.
Chapter 26
The Battle for a Soul
Zarah kicked out of her bedroll. Her mother had already risen.
“Mother,” she said. “What happened to him?”
“I cannot be sure, Zarah. He said that the bone from his cage pierced him. That must be how the Death Element tainted him. The taint felt like Kyler’s had. That has to be it.”
“What does that mean?” Zarah asked, though she knew what her mother would say.
“I believe Elwin is battling for his soul.”
“We have to help him,” Zarah said.
“Listen to me.” Her mother stepped toward her. “There is nothing we can do for him from here. We need to break camp and keep moving. The battle will be his to fight. He has a good soul. You and I both know this. If he wins, he will need us to meet him in Goldspire. When we find him, we will help him. Alright?”
Zarah nodded. Then she bent to her bedroll and started re-rolling it. The leather strap was sewn in. She tied the roll closed.
Father came around the wagons, and Mother greeted him. She could not hear her words, but she knew what she would say.
Mother had not spoken about what would happen if Elwin lost the battle. But she understood the implications. If Elwin lost his soul, then he would be lost to Abaddon’s will. That would make him Death bound. There was only one penalty for becoming Death bound.
“This is not right,” she walked over to her parents. “Can the Seeker force Elwin to become Death bound?”
“I have never heard of it,” Mother said. “But I had not heard of being able to force a person to battle for his soul until Tharu showed us the truth of it.”
“I have to speak to Kyler,” Zarah said.
“There is a reason that he is lying in the back of a wagon instead of steering a wagon,” Mother said. “Kyler is injured and needs his rest. He has already told us what he knows.”
“But he did not tell us anything useful.”
“Zarah,” she said, “you are to let him rest. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Good,” she said. “Now, load your travel gear. The men are already packed for travel.”
The morning spilled in from the opening of the cave, and Feffer’s eyes jerked open. He had not meant to fall asleep, but Elwin had not moved upon falling from the saddle. To Feffer’s ungifted eyes, this so-called Darkness of Spirit looked a lot like sleeping. Maybe Daki was a prankster.
Feffer sat up.
Daki sat next to Elwin without moving as he had the night before. Not a prankster then. Maybe, the Chai Tu Naruo was simply wrong. Or maybe this Darkness was like this connected-ness they had spoken of.
Elwin’s eyes popped open. Swirling black fog filled his eyes, and Elwin’s mouth twisted, as if he was pained.
A high-pitched squeal escaped his lips.
Daki was standing over Elwin with both blades in his hands, faster than Feffer thought was possible. Taego rose almost as quickly and hunched toward Elwin, baring his teeth.
Feffer pulled the sword from its sheath and stood over Elwin. “What are you doing?”
Recognition entered Daki’s eyes, and he lowered his blades. Taego did not back down. The bear growled. The sound was loud in the small cavern.
Feffer’s heart raced, and he fought the urge to drop his sword and run from the cave. Thumping bear. How could someone become friends with a thumping bear?
“Taego,” Daki placed a hand on the back of the bear. “It will be alright.”
The bear closed his maw, and he leaned back against the cave wall.
“How did you do that?” Feffer said, though he did not lower his sword. He tried to watch the bear and Elwin. “Never mind. I don’t care. What is happening to Elwin? Tell me! I know that you know.”
There was sadness in Daki’s eyes. “His battle has begun for true. There is nothing we can do but sit and wait.”
“Battle?” Feffer said. “What are you talking about? Wait for what?”
Daki looked away from him.
“Tell me!” Feffer yelled. “Thumping tell me what is happening to him!”
“The Darkness of Spirit battles for his soul,” Daki said. “We must wait to see who wins.”
“His soul?” Feffer said. “How will we know who wins?”
Daki met his eyes. “If Elwin does not win, he will try to kill us.”
Feffer lowered his blade. Elwin’s teeth were clenched and all his muscles tensed. More importantly, the dark fog seemed thicker than before.
He was running in a field of wildflowers. They were yellow. The sun was low in the eastern sky.
Why am I running? he thought.
He stopped running.
“Where am I?”
He looked around. There was a forest to the east and hills to the west. North, he could see a road winding east toward the horizon. Shouldn’t he be following a road?
Behind him to the south, mountains loomed.
“Hello,” he called. “Can anyone hear me?”
It seemed like he should be running. But he wasn’t sure why. “Is someone there?”
There was a low hum. He tried to listen to it. The voice was strained, but it sounded like a woman’s humming. It came from the east, away from the road.
But roads led to places.
He started running again. Reaching the road seemed important. As it neared, he could see a wagon. It was a tall wooden wagon, and it was parked in the middle of the road. Two horses stood in front of the wagon. The carriage was slightly tipped in the front, leaning toward the other side.
He walked around t
o see the wheel to the wagon had broken off, and a man in black robes was trapped beneath it to his waist. He had pale skin and long, black hair. The man’s dark eyes regarded him. He thought he knew the man, but the man was wrong, somehow.
All of his instincts screamed for him to run, but he couldn’t leave. This man needed help.
“Please,” the man said. “Help me.”
He moved closer to the man and saw the side door to the wagon stood open. Jewels, gold, and platinum spilled onto the ground. Littered beneath the coins were books. The books were all leather bound tomes, their pages yellow with age. The books seemed to be more important to him than the jewels or coins. Rain would ruin them.
The thought tugged at a memory, but he couldn’t bring it to the surface.
Leaning up against the rear wheel was a large jagged sword without a sheath. Beside that was a spare wheel.
He heard a voice whisper in his ear, “Kill him. This wealth can be yours. You can be the king of all. Just kill him and take what is yours by right.”
“No,” he told the voice. “I have to help him.”
He ran to the wagon and tried to lift it, but it was too heavy.
“Help me push,” he said to the man. But the man had lost consciousness.
The humming became louder. He could almost make out the tune of a lullaby.
The man’s neck twisted toward him, and his eyes opened. In place of his eyes were a void, blacker than night. The man’s voice was deeper than he thought possible. “You belong to me, now.”
He backed away from the man but tripped on a book.
Dark shadows appeared all around him. They had the shape of small humanlike creatures. There were hundreds of them running toward him from all directions. He had no where to run. If only he could fly.
The image of a girl entered his thoughts. She had a smooth face, long auburn hair, and dark eyes. She had a name. Why could he not remember it?
Just as the darkness enclosed him in its grasp, her name graced his memory. “Zarah.”
Elwin Escari’s blond hair bounced about his shoulders, as he swung down from the lowest branch of the large, redwood tree. The short sleeve of his green tunic snagged as he dropped onto the dirt road beside the tree. He stopped to inspect the tear.
“Phew,” he told the empty road, “it’s not that bad. Mother will probably never notice.”
The anticipation of climbing that particular tree was the reason for wearing the brown trousers. Dirt was harder to see on brown. After they were wiped to his satisfaction, he checked the coin purse at his belt loop that his father had given him. It still dangled on his belt. Satisfied that he was presentable, he walked up the dirt road in the direction of the town.
The sun hit its zenith by the time Elwin reached the first building at the edge of town. He could see Danna placing new candles in the window of her small shop. It, like the rest of the buildings in Benedict, had been constructed of the strong redwoods from the Carotid Forest to the north, which Elwin could see at the edge of the horizon.
The summer’s cool, northern breeze brought the apple-scented candles to Elwin.
Danna’s dark hair was pulled back and tied up. A smudge of red wax had dried to each cheek, just below her eyes. Elwin noticed that her apron was covered in waxes of various colors, but her linen dress remained spotless. Danna smiled and waved as he passed.
He waved back and continued into town.
The rich smells from Warne’s Apothecary on Elwin’s right and pungent odors from Jansen’s Brewery on his left provided a stark contrast to the sweet-scented candles just moments before.
Several more paces brought him to the town square in front of his Poppe’s Inn. Across the square was the Madrowl dry good shop. Didn’t he need to do something there? He walked toward the step, but stopped.
A woman’s voice was humming a lullaby in the west.
To the east, a man walked toward him. He wore black robes and had long, black hair. Elwin thought he knew him, but that wasn’t possible. His mother and father did not like him to talk to travelers.
His stomach felt unsettled. The closer the man came to him, the stronger it felt. Elwin felt the need to run, but he could not make his legs move. He felt angry at the man, but he could not say why.
The man’s dark eyes regarded Elwin with recognition. “Hello, Son of Bain.”
Why did that sound familiar?
“You are mistaken, sir,” Elwin said. “My father’s name is Drenen.”
The man’s hand blurred toward Elwin’s face, then he found himself on the ground. He looked up at the man, feeling the sting across his face as an afterthought.
“You … you struck me.”
“You are pathetic,” the man said. “Living on a farm has made you weak.”
Elwin heard the door to the inn open.
His Poppe exited, carrying a large broadsword. “You get away from him!”
The man smiled. “I will make you an offer, Son of Bain. If you leave with me now, I will let the peasant live. If you resist me, I will destroy all that you hold dear.”
His Poppe had slayed trolls and evil wizards, surely he could defend Elwin against one man. A thought in the back of his mind nagged at him, but nothing coherent came to the surface.
“I am not going anywhere with you,” Elwin said.
Poppe took a step toward them. “I said back away from the boy.”
The man held his hand in front of him, palm facing upward. Red embers appeared and disappeared around him and a small ball of flame appeared above his palm.
Elwin blinked. How had he …? The question vanished in the next moment.
The man threw the ball of flame toward his Poppe. Time seemed to slow. He could see the ball of fire expanding as it flew toward his grandpa. The sword fell from his Poppe’s hand and moved toward the ground as if through water. Both Poppe and the man moved the same speed as the falling sword.
Elwin could see a smile in the man’s eyes as he watched the flame move toward Poppe. His grandfather covered his face with his arm and turned away from the growing ball of fire.
When the flame hit Poppe’s side, it made a loud noise, then burst.
The intensity of the blast hit Elwin in the face, and he closed his eyes against the heat. He felt his body moving through air, until a solid surface slammed into him. It took him a moment to realize he was laying on the ground.
He pushed himself to his feet and looked all around, but Poppe was no where to be seen. The front of the inn was missing and the roof was on fire. Where his grandfather had been standing was the broadsword. The man stood between Elwin and the blade.
Dark eyes followed Elwin’s gaze to the sword.
The man smiled. “Go on, then. Take the sword, farmer.”
Elwin did not hesitate. He walked wide of the man and grabbed hold of the sword. It was lighter than it had looked, but it did not feel awkward. He was sure that he had held it before. But that did not make sense. His Poppe rarely let him in the private dining room where he had kept the sword. And he would never have let him hold it.
As the man in the black robes walked toward him, Elwin held the sword in both hands and broadened his stance. This, too, had a familiar feel.
“You are too weak to strike me down, farmer.” The man dropped to his knees and threw his head back, exposing his throat. “Let me make it easier for you.” The man closed his eyes.
Elwin looked at the man’s pale neck, where his life vein pulsed. Elwin could hear his own heart beating. He gripped the hilt in both hands and held the sword high.
He could hear a woman singing somewhere in the distance. Her voice was louder now. Elwin could hear her words lulling him.
Sleep my weary child,
Rest your eyes for a while.
My love shall always endure.
So, your heart mu
st stay pure,
There is nothing you need fear,
Mother will always be near.
Sleep my weary child,
Rest your eyes for a while...
Elwin dropped the sword.
“No!” The man’s eyes opened, but the whites were gone. He turned his head toward the singing and shouted, “This is my realm! How are you here?”
The man’s face contorted into a look of rage, and the void of night looked into Elwin’s eyes. “You will be mine Son of Bain.”
The sun vanished from the sky, and his surroundings faded away. But worst of all, he could no longer hear the woman singing.
Elwin held his baby girl in his arms, while Zarah napped on the bed. There was a wooden bassinet next to the bed. The white bedding with pink trim matched the blanket he had wrapped around his sleeping baby.
Both of his ladies slept soundly. The thought gave him a feeling of peace.
He needed to put Asa down, but he didn’t want to wake her. Asa needed her midday nap. Soon, he wouldn’t have a choice. Within the hour, there would be a White Council meeting. An emissary from Alcoa had arrived and wished to discuss the terms of the alliance with Justice, under the new ruler.
Bain Solsec was his name.
The name seemed familiar to Elwin, but he couldn’t quite place it. King Alcoa had died without producing an heir. Some mystery surrounded Alcoa’s death, but the emissary was to shed light on this as well. For the first time since the founding of the great nation, a man not of the Alcoan bloodline ruled Alcoa.
Elwin had never met King Alcoa, but for some reason this saddened him. Maybe, it was because he realized the importance of family now that he had one of his own.
He watched his wife from the balcony. Now that Asa was here, she couldn’t get enough rest. Her face was as smooth as the day he had met her, five years prior. They had to get permission from the king to marry, since he was not of noble birth.
If not for his ability to tame the Elements, he would have likely never received permission. But then, he would have likely never met Zarah. Or if he had, it would have been as a soldier. Like Feffer, he would have been recruited all of those years ago.