by Steven Drake
“Do I really have to say it? Did you really not know?” Nielas laughed, a sound that seemed to convey years of hopeless frustration tinged with a hint of madness. “I have been in love with you since you blossomed into a woman. Is that so horrible, that I care about you?”
“I’m sorry Nielas,” Nia said it almost snarling, blinking away tears and pulling up as straight as she could, straining against the cold metal shackles that bound her hands to the floor of the wagon. “I won’t ever love you. Ever.”
He laughed again, a quavering, unstable cackling that rapidly changed pitch. The insanity in his voice grew sharper. “Not now, but maybe after a few years, you’ll change your mind. I still love you, and I’m going to protect you, whether you like it or not. I’ll keep you safe, even if you never look at me again.”
Nia buried her face into her knees, and let her tears fall. Nielas had lost his mind entirely, blinded by love. Perhaps this is why Darien hated it so much. This is why he pushed Rana away, and why he tried to keep me and Jerris apart. Gods…It hurts so much. Jerris…Grandfather…gone…dead.
For the moment, she could not begin to think. Nielas would lock her up somewhere and keep her as a prisoner, safe but miserable. Then again, did it matter? Everyone in her family was dead now. Her father had died in childhood, as had the mother she had never known. Darien, the brother she had just met, had been lost, most likely dead. The grandfather who had raised her and loved her lay dead as well. Worst of all, Jerris, the half-elf who had crashed into her life and led her on a terrifying yet marvelous adventure, the young man who had kindled the first sparks of romance in her soul, the source of all her newfound hopes for the future, was gone, torn away from her forever. She wondered if she could ever feel anything but misery ever again. Overwhelmed, she let grief have its moment, gave herself over to despair, and let the rest of the world fade into the background.
Chapter 11: Wings of Pursuit
Jerris opened his eyes to a bright blue sky with just a few wisps of feathery cloud high overhead. He lay on his back, staring upwards, grateful to be awake at all. Birds circled overhead, spinning tighter and lower until they were just a few yards up, vultures. Then a deafening roar assaulted Jerris’ ears as a flash of purple fur spun in front of his eyes. The vultures wheeled away shrieking and climbed high into the sky again, resuming their slow circles.
A rough, sandpapery tongue scraped against his forehead, accompanied by a soft whimper. Jerris rolled over and groaned. He pushed himself up, and swung his legs in front of him, bringing himself to a kneeling position. Violet licked him again, this time directly in the face.
“I’m fine, Violet. Thank you.” The big cat seemed to smile, at least as nearly as a purple animal with the body of a bear and the face of a lion could be said to smile. The bearcat clicked its long fangs against each other and sat on its haunches. Jerris rubbed his head. Ceres, he thought, panicky. She had fallen as well. He looked a few feet away to the spot where Ceres lay. She wasn’t moving. Jerris summoned all his strength and pushed his aching heavy body towards the elf sentinel.
After a crawl of just a few yards that took several minutes, he sat next to Ceres. He bent down to check, fearing what he would discover. Jerris let out a deep sigh of relief as he felt Ceres breath, shallow and weak against his face. At least she was alive. He sat next to her, trying to gather himself, fighting the effects of the poison, so much worse than the first time. How much had they used? Violet walked over and sat next to him. Jerris relaxed into her thick fur, leaning on her strength. She purred loudly. The animal had saved his life again. Jerris debated going for help, but felt certain if he tried to stand, he would collapse in a few minutes. Instead he waited. If he survived the poison, so would Ceres. Unable to do much else, Jerris stroked the fur on Violet’s leg, while the sun climbed high into the sky, wondering how much time had passed since he had fallen asleep. The sun hung straight overhead when Ceres finally stirred.
“Ceres, Ceres,” Jerris called. She grunted and her eyes fluttered open. She sat up quickly and brushed her auburn hair away from her face.
“Damn.” Ceres shook her head vigorously and blinked. “I’m sorry, I should have suspected a trap.”
“We survived, that’s what’s important,” Jerris said as he stood up. Ceres tried to stand as well but stumbled and rubbed her head. “Just rest for a while. It will take some time for the poison to wear off.” Jerris extended a hand to help Ceres up. She shook her head and remained seated.
“I’ll just rest for a while, if you don’t mind.” Ceres almost apologized.
“It’s alright, Ceres, you rest, and I’ll have a look around and see if I can figure out what happened.”
“Don’t go far. There may be more of them.”
“I won’t, and I’ll be careful.”
Jerris wandered toward a thick pillar of rock, stopping to pick up the dart he had pulled out of his neck just before falling unconscious. He took a step around the rock pillar to check the back side and pulled up short with a corpse at his feet. Jerris felt his gorge rise and turned away until the disgust had passed. The man had lost his arm below the elbow, and his face had been mauled badly. Violet had ended the man’s life in gruesome fashion, killing him so quickly, he had not even drawn his sword. The man was dressed in common black clothes, nondescript, bearing no marking. It didn’t matter, really. Jerris had been darted before, and he knew who was behind this.
Jerris took a look around, finding a fairly large open area on the far side of the rock pillar. Two yards away, deeper in the shadows of the rock pillar, lay another dead man, this one with his bowels spilled out on the dust, his sword abandoned and his hands still against his stomach trying to keep his guts inside himself. Jerris looked around and saw what appeared to be another victim on the ground a dozen yards away. He ran up to it, and saw it was indeed a third man, dressed in the same nondescript black clothes. This one had three great gashes torn into his back, and his head had been crushed. This one also had failed to even draw his blade. Most likely he had tried to run away, and not gotten far. Violet had probably killed them all in the span of a few seconds. Good riddance. Jerris clenched his fists.
Jerris rifled quickly through their pockets and found a few more darts, but nothing else noteworthy. He expanded his search outwards, searching every nook and cranny within a hundred or so yards of where he had fallen. He found the chain that had been used to hold Violet, cut clean and smooth by Jerris’ blade of light. He found no more enemies, dead or otherwise, so he returned to Ceres.
“What did you find?” Ceres asked as she sat in the dirt.
Jerris explained what he found and handed Ceres the darts.
“I see,” Ceres said as she turned the darts over in her hand, examining them thoroughly while careful not to prick herself. “This again. Well, I suppose we know who to blame, don’t we?”
“Nielas,” Jerris said through gritted teeth. “Those darts were just like the ones he used in Trinium. I suppose we’re lucky his men didn’t use enough poison to kill us.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Ceres said. “These darts were full.”
“You can tell that?”
“Yes, from the residue.” Ceres said. “These darts hold enough to kill a man twice over. Fortunately, we are not human.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” Jerris asked. Ceres looked skeptically at him.
“I’m surprised your mother never told you. We have a natural resistance to most poisons, and many diseases,” Ceres said. “That’s why elves often get blamed for plagues or accused of witchcraft, even those who possess no magic. We are often the only ones who don’t get sick during plagues. Also, once we’re exposed to a particular poison, we gain a resistance. If we hadn’t been drugged with this same stuff before, we might be in trouble.”
“So they meant to kill us,” Jerris said.
“It seems so.” Ceres spat on the ground. “Curse these humans, I’ll make them regret this.”
; “But why?” Jerris asked. “Why set all this up? Why drag Violet out here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Ceres said. “They want the Star Sword. They lured you out here to separate you from Niarie. I’m sure she’s the one he was after.”
“But they don’t know where she is,” Jerris said.
“They must have found out. There were over a dozen of those servant caste dragons sleeping in those tunnels.”
“No. No!” Jerris started to panic, but Ceres grabbed him strongly by the arm.
“Stay calm. Think, Jerris,” Ceres urged. “She’s probably still alive. I don’t think Nielas would kill her, the way he looks at her.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes, I think he may have feelings for her. Hopefully, that will at least keep her alive.”
“Damn him! When I get my hands on him, I’ll… I’ll…”
“Just stay calm, we’ll find her, but we need to keep our heads. First, we go back to Kilnar, find Kesz, see what he knows, and see what we can learn. We can try to find Eldrik, but if he wasn’t involved with this himself, he was probably a target. I expect we’ll either find him dead or we won’t find him at all.”
Ceres nodded and Jerris returned the gesture. She was right. Darien would never lose his focus, or panic. He was about to call Violet when something occurred to him.
“Wait, you mean you’re not going to try and convince me to return to Kadanar?” Jerris asked. “You’ve been trying to get me away from Niarie for weeks, and now you want to get her back.”
“It wouldn’t do any good to argue with you, so why bother?” Ceres said. Somehow, that explanation seemed less than convincing, but there were more important things to worry about so Jerris let the matter drop.
Jerris called Violet and they made their way back to Kilnar as quickly as their still recovering bodies allowed. When they came within sight of the gates, they saw a commotion at one of the guard towers, then a shadow flew up out of one of the towers. Within seconds, a dark shape flew towards them. Jerris recognized the svelte form and course fire red hair of Tzia, the lady dragonkin, one of Lord Gransz’s most trusted officers. She landed a few feet in front of them.
“Honored guests.” Tzia bowed politely. “It is good to see you are well. One of the pashka notified us you were missing. We thought you might have left with the other humans, but he was quite insistent. We were about to send out search parties.” Tzia looked between the two of them and at Violet with a confused look. “Lady Niarie was reported missing as well. Was she not with you?”
“No. Someone led us into an ambush out in the desert. Nia stayed behind. We think they were after her.”
“What? Who would do this?” Tzia fell to her knees and bowed deeply, touching her head to the ground. “I apologize that this has happened within our borders. If I find it was one of our tribesmen who did this, I will personally carve his heart from his chest.”
“It wasn’t,” Jerris said. “We think we know who did this, but first we need to know how long have we been missing.”
“Since last evening, according to the pashka.”
“Well at least we’ve only been out a few hours.”
“What has happened?” Tzia asked. Jerris related the tale of how he had left town searching for the bearcat, then the ambush in the rocks, and their suspicion that Nielas had been behind the attack. Tzia listened intently, growling with disapproval every few seconds.
“Such dishonorable tactics,” Tzia said. “May their souls be bound to their deceit. Such traitors will never see the land of fire.” She spat on the ground. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Thank you. We need to speak with Eldrik. Do you know where he is?”
“Most of the Golden Shield’s forces withdrew early this morning. They left for their own lands in the south, but he was not among them. He must still be in his room.”
“Will you take us there, please?” Jerris asked.
“Of course,” Tzia replied with a bow.
Jerris thanked Tzia and followed her as she led them into the city. Once through the gates, Jerris commanded Violet to return to the stables. He would have to find some way later to remove the shackle from her leg. Tzia then led them straight through the city, past the building that had housed the Golden Shield barracks to a small black metallic dome that looked like an overturned bowl. On the eastern side of the structure was a round brass door. Jerris wasted no time and knocked, producing a sharp hollow clang. He waited a moment, but no answer came. He knocked again, this time louder. Again, not a sound came from inside the structure. Perhaps Eldrik was simply out somewhere, but darker possibilities rose into Jerris’ mind. He turned the handle. Locked.
“Can we force the door?” Jerris asked.
“I’m surprised Darien never taught you that trick,” Ceres said. She put her hand out to the keyhole and sparks flew from her fingertip. Jerris felt a surge of magic and noticed the corresponding weakening of Ceres aura. Such a small spell would have barely affected him, and of course Darien could have blown the door up entirely without even trying very hard. Jerris again felt the absence of his teacher. Could he rescue Niarie himself, without Darien to help? Would he have to fight Nielas, or Geoffray, perhaps both?
Ceres turned the door handle. It stuck at first, and made a cracking sound as the lock breaking had not been completely successful. Given enough force however, the handle turned, and the door swung inwards to reveal a gloomy scene. A single stub of a candle flickered on the table, nearly burned away. Eldrik lay slumped face down on the table. Jerris looked away as Ceres made her way across the room.
“He’s dead,” Ceres declared. “Not surprising. Of course, if that snake had intended to kill us so we could not follow, he would have done the same to Nia’s grandfather.”
“What happened to him?” Jerris asked, guessing he already knew the answer.
“I don’t see any visible injuries. Probably poisoned.” Ceres pointed to a half empty cup of something on the table, probably coffee or tea. “He may not have even realized it. Nielas was his second in command. He could have poisoned Eldrik’s drink without the Archmage knowing.”
Tzia growled rather judgmentally. “The worst kind of treachery. This is why we so seldom have dealings with humans, so many honorless dogs hiding among them. Perhaps it is different with elves. I have known but a few.”
“It is,” Ceres said. “We are not perfect, but at least we do not allow greed and desire to rule us so completely.”
“We have to go after Geoffray and the Shield Knights,” Jerris said. “If they left this morning, they can’t have gotten very far.”
“We can’t be sure that Nielas is with them,” Ceres pointed out.
“No, but we have to start somewhere,” Jerris said. “And we at least know which way they went. Perhaps if they’re not involved, they’ll know something helpful.”
“You think Geoffray would help us?”
“Darien never worried too much about Geoffray.” Jerris drummed his fingers against his arm, his mind churning in thought. “He always said Geoffray was easy to deal with, even as hostile as he was. His sense of justice is the most important thing to him. He can’t go against it. I don’t think he would just kidnap Nia. At worst, he would arrest her for some crime. If he does that, he won’t hide it. He’s not like Traiz.”
“Well, if you think it’s wise, we’ll follow them.”
“We should find Kesz first, just to see if he knows anything else.” Jerris turned to Tzia who was standing over Eldrik’s body, shaking her head. “Tzia, can you give Eldrik a proper burial?”
“He shall have all the honors of a fallen champion,” Tzia said. “I give you my word upon my honor and the name of the Greatmother.”
Jerris nodded, thanked Tzia, and headed out into the city. The afternoon was well under way, and Jerris still wanted to leave before nightfall if possible, so they hurried towards the caves. They found Kesz near the entrance. As soon as he saw them, he began to bow ap
ologetically and repeatedly as he scurried over.
“Kesz is glad to see Jerris and Ceres well. Kesz apologizes, begs forgiveness. Another servant reveals Kesz’s secret hiding place.” The dragon continued to bow and wring his hands, obviously beside himself with worry. “Niaries was good friend of Kesz. Kesz promised to keep her safe and fails. Such shame.”
Jerris put a hand on the little dragon’s shoulder and he stilled, turning his pale blue eyes up. “It’s all right Kesz. It’s not your fault. You did everything you could. We’ll find her. I promise. Tell us everything you know.”
“Kesz returns last night to find Niaries already gone. Kesz searches city, but finds nothing, warns honored commander of missing friends and searches for traitorous one.”
“Any idea where they might have gone?” Ceres asked.
“Kesz does not know. Begs forgiveness. Only knows other humans go south. Kesz does not know if Niaries with them.” The little dragon lowered his eyes to the ground again. Jerris did not know if dragonkin had the ability to cry, but he could tell that Kesz felt awful.
“Thank you, Kesz. We’re going to look for her, but I need you to help with something,” Jerris said. “Could you look in on Violet? She has an iron shackle on her leg. See if you can find a way to remove it, but wait for me if she doesn’t cooperate.”
“Kesz will do this.” The little dragon perked up, eager to help. He started to scurry off, but suddenly stopped and turned around. “Jerris has ability to calm beasts, yes, command them?”
“Well, yes, I suppose I can. Some of them.”
“Kesz has idea. Kesz remembers seeing flying snake outside city, great mage’s pet, perhaps Jerris could use it to find Nia. Much faster to fly, yes.” Jerris stopped and puzzled for a moment, wondering what Kesz could be talking about before he suddenly remembered that Eldrik had a tame wyvern. That was how he got to Kilnar from Trinium ahead of them.