The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth

by Jason R Jones

“How about you? Did I kill you to eat, your parents perhaps? I hate venison actually, nevermind.”

  Growling mixed with water dripping from the raised face of the deer hinted at its displeasure and understanding of every word this cursed elf spoke.

  “Irramas! The priest in Shalokahn, it must be. I cut your head off right in your own temple after you paid three assasins to kill me and I brought you their ears. About a century and a half past?”

  Face still in the water now, the deer shook its head and growled bubbles, twice.

  “I have killed thousands, you realize. This may well take years to piece together. If your goddess is so merciful, then why can’t you speak? Stupid animal.” Kendari knelt next to the river, cupped his hands, and drank of the refreshing water.

  His whole body fell into the river, drenched, knocked over by the quick rush of the deer that slammed its head into his shoulder.

  Sploosh!

  Kendari stood, blades out, Shiver popping and crackling as its heat turned the moisture into steam. His blessed off hand sword from Cristoff held in reverse, his stance knee deep in the Garalan was perfect. The deer stared at him, head cocked to the side, ten feet away and taunting him with just a look. They had incurred a few chases recently, and the deer had shown how much faster it was on foot than the cursed elven swordsman each time.

  “You are dinner, I assure you now. I will find a taste for venison. Perhaps not tonight, but you will have to sleep eventually. I will sell your parts to merchants, I will keep a hoof as a reminder, but I will cook you over an open flame and enjoy every bite.” Kendari stewed, dripping wet, staring at the deer that rebelled against his every comment and command. He paused, hoping to feint the animal with words and stillness.

  He ran, diving out of the river, onto land, and sprinting a sword pointed lunge toward the four legged animal. When he reached the spot the deer had been, it had leapt off and was now twenty feet to the west, near the horse. It growled again, staring at the frustrated elf that had been trying to kill it for nearly two weeks.

  “I will find out who you were and I will kill you again! Then when she sends you once more, we will see if you have improved on your communication. Don’t think the horse will help you either, he is smarter than you, he fears me.” Kendari stared his green eyes into the brown eyes of this irritating animal.

  The deer ran off to the south, over a hill in the darkening sky. Kendari and the horse watched, then it was gone.

  “Finally, some rest.” He sheathed his swords and went for the waterskins on the horse to fill them, boots sloshing as he walked.

  “Naahhahhyye!”

  Kendari drew his off hand blade halfway out and stared at the black steed, eye to eye. “Don’t you start now, I have had about enough.”

  “If Seirena wished revenge upon me beyond this curse, she is well on her way. This little voyage to Vin Armon had better pay off, for your sakes, or my blades will be---“

  He paused, the horse looked south at the hill, they had both heard it. The sound of men shouting, laughing, yelling to one another. The sun fell fast to the east, then the deer stood atop the hill, beckoning in a silent pose for the horse and Kendari to see it.

  “I am not going. I care not for any more signs, strange behaving animals, or even the climb up that hill. Tell your smaller idiot friend I am not going.” Kendari continued with the waterskins, shaking his own head now that he realized he was conversing to a horse to pass on a message to a deer.

  “Madness, madness shall be her revenge upon me, I can see it. Soaking wet, tired, and talking to horses and four legged food. That is how Seirena will see me spend the last of my days.”

  He heard it again, then the clash of steel caught his elven ears, he looked to the southern hill. The deer was still standing there, looking down at him as he stood halfway to the river. He grinned, hearing what could only be a fight or duel taking place beyond the deer. He set down the waterskins and strode south.

  “I am only going to watch the bloodshed, and there had better be some.” He passed the young buck as he whispered, hearing the quiet hoofsteps behind him.

  Kendari crouched low, crept closer to a dusty crossroad, and gazed out at the tents. Half were up and posted well, ten more were laid out and yet to be raised. The soft white glow of the sliver of Carice was contrasted greatly by the open sky holding a glowing half green Gimmor on the cloudless evening. He watched for motion, found it beyond the southern side of the tents, and he rushed in the darkness to behind the row of wagons.

  “I say, she is quick indeed! Anyone else care to try?” A man’s voice spoke up over the mumbling crowd.

  Kendari watched as a man, the one that had spoken, walked close to the wagons and picked up his greatsword from the ground.

  “I will see it done! Perhaps you men would be afraid to split a wandering whore, but I am not. I have no bones about taking it to her while she is bandaged and cut, live or not.” Another man, larger, a Shanadorian man for sure, drew a bastard sword and twirled it in one hand.

  “I have told you, I am no whore. I am traveling west, alone. Leave me be.” A woman’s voice, calm, Kendari had heard it before.

  “Lone woman on merchant roads in the night? Not a whore? Say what you would lass, say what you would. Twill be easier if you put the blade down, let us have our way with what you do, and then you get your coins.” Another man, one of dozens in the armed merchant caravan surrounding this woman, tried to ease her down before anyone got seriously injured.

  Kendari strode out, deer behind him, and stood in the firelight not twenty feet behind the ring of men. He looked past them, seeing reddish blonde hair on the woman, green robes, and that beautiful serious face, he remembered now. It was the woman from the Temple of Golden Mercy in Chazzrynn, the one from the alley in Harlaheim, Angeline she had said her name was. The woman that could fly, she must be tracking me again he thought, but why, Kendari could not figure.

  “Then who is next? I have disarmed three of you, the next man may not be so lucky.” Angeline stared at their eyes, taking small steps in circles, waiting and feeling with Charity drawn for who would charge her.

  “I say take her in a rush. Forget the honor and swordsmanship.” Kendari walked up to them, startling five or six close by, hands on his pommels.

  “Mind your business traveler, we here are just having a midjourney foray with a wandering whore, tis none of your concern.”

  “Ahh, but you see, it is. I owe this woman, from back in Harlaheim. So, my previous debt will take place over your current desires, I insist.”

  “Girl does get around then, she will likely be excellent in our tents. You, my strange marked man with a deer, may have her after we are through.”

  “A trade then. This deer for the whore.” Kendari smiled, hearing the growl from behind him.

  “I am not a whore!” Angeline of Charity pulled her focus from the cursed elf that was obviously still hunting her, ignoring his wink, and raised her voice over the conversation.

  “Every woman has it in her though, we will be happy to show you how. Merchant road is long indeed, and we are heading east. We can drop you back in Harlaheim after a few weeks of fun, lass.”

  “I am sure she would enjoy it, no doubt. But, she will be coming with me. Now, stand aside.” Kendari slid Shiver and his other longblade out slowly as his smile went serious.

  “If you think that a little painted elf and his little deer frighten twenty one Shanadorians, think again. You should be a bit wiser and---“

  Clang, slice, thud

  The men blinked. Just as the man was stating their argument a moment earlier, he was now disarmed and decapitated by the black clad elf. Before they could react, the woman disarmed the blade from another and the deer slammed into a third merchant and knocked him to the ground.

  “By the bloody wings of Alden! Horthim, he killed Horthim!” Another yelled, the merchant men drew their blades toward the elf and the woman, many on a full angry run at them in the night.

/>   Kendari took his low stance, looked down at the severed head and smiled. “Watch and learn Horthim.”

  A wave of ten large blonde men rushed Kendari, then two hit the earth as their legs lost appendage below the knees from the rolling elf and his blades. Two more dropped in painful screams as a hot longsword slashed them across their backs, then another fell as the tip off the off hand blade plunged through his chest from the side. As they turned around searching for the dark swordsman yet two more men met the ground and death as Kendari leapt off of a kneeling body and slashed Shiver though their necks in midair. Three men turned again as the cursed elf landed before them, the only three out of ten that could stand, and they stared as he twirled his blades and smiled.

  Nine men swarmed Angeline, the tenth went tumbling from the impact of the young charging deer she had sensed and sent to get help. Charity spun in wide arcs, chopping the tips of blades off as she struck. Just as they lunged for her en masse, she asked the air to help and she dove upward into the sky nearly ten feet. Most of the men crashed into one another, some fell into the chipped blades of those opposite them, and some still watched as the woman they had harassed landed softly behind them as if the very air was beneath her feet and at her command. Four men charged her, then three as the deer took out the legs of one in passing. Charity swung low, deflecting a strike in the night from a greatsword, then Angeline cut across the mans chest. Another parry from Charity, and two more, as the men pressed her with strong cuts full of anger. Her sacred blade disarmed one as she cut out with a fast slash. Her sweeping follow through sliced both thighs of the other man, who fell in screams to the ground.

  Still backing up, Angeline saw the cursed elf walking toward her as he pulled one of his blades from another merchant who fell dead behind him. The deer looked around, watching the seven injured men run off down the roadway into the night. The other fourteen were not moving and would not be anytime soon.

  “You?!” Angeline of Charity kept her guard up since the approaching wicked elf still had his bloody blades in his grip.

  “We have unfinished business, remember? You tracked me to here, bravo. Now, my flying woman, it is time to end it.” Kendari lunged with Shiver, deflected by her feathered hand and a half blade. He crosscut with Cristoff’s blade, parried again. He started his circling, his cuts getting faster, pushing her back toward the road, his two blades barely being met with her steel.

  “You tracked me, cursed one. I seek the west, not the likes of you.” Angeline countered every attack, barely sensing with his short cuts and elven speed where he would strike or feint next. Charity throbbed in her hands that she was concerned for her wielders safety.

  “Lies. Too coincidental.” Kendari pushed faster, sparks flitting off of their steel blades as he wove his attacks closer to the woman.

  “I do not lie.” Angeline summoned the winds at her feet, yet softened the dry earth below her feet through Charity. This swordsmans blades were inches from her now, getting closer with every parry she tried to match.

  “Then I will err on the side of caution.” Kendari saw the dust swirling, let his blades and cuts go long, and waited until she tried to fly. She did, he saw her legs tense, and he leapt up with both blades slashing in a whirl of enchanted steel that would have cut through any defense. Yet, there was no one there. Kendari’s blades caught but air, and he landed and looked.

  Angeline, smiling and en guard, rose through the earth, ten feet behind the deer. She shook the dry dusty dirt from her hair and stared her blue eyes into this elf’s green wicked ones. “Over here.”

  “Damn it. You fly and travel through the ground? Any other tricks?” Kendari strode toward Angeline, twirling both blades in his hands. He stepped over the dead and dying as if they did not exist. The deer, however, did not move. It growled as he approached it, and lowered its head.

  “Plenty. I sent for help through the deer. Why it brought you I have not the answer for.” Angeline sidestepped, keeping her distance.

  Kendari stopped. “You can communicate with this stupid thing?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then tell me what its name is.”

  Angeline whispered to the deer as it approached her. She knelt down, it seemed to whisper back into her ear, yet no one besides the two of them would understand what was being said in such a manner. She looked to Kendari as if she were angry for a moment. The conversation continued, and then Angeline looked sad and petted the deer. After a few minutes of nodding and whispers between spirits, she stood and looked to the cursed elf.

  “You are wicked indeed.”

  “I already know I killed it, previously, if that is what you are getting at.”

  “There is more, he has told me.”

  “You won’t strike a moral chord here, Angeline, so save me the drivel and tell me the name.”

  “No.” She sheathed her sacred blade.

  “No you will not tell me, or no you did not get the name.” Kendari thought of stepping up to kill her now, frustrated and tired as he was.

  “I know his name. But I will not tell you, not until you complete what Seirena has offered, marked one.” Angeline had heard how this one died, and trusted this elf even less now knowing what he was and why from the deer.

  “My name is Ken---“

  “Kendari, Kendari of Stillwood, I know. The deer told me.”

  “Then quit calling me cursed one, or marked one, or wicked painted elf. I know what I look like, idiot. I also know I am cursed, hence the moronic animal that you are talking to. It is annoying, and when I get annoyed, heads roll onto the earth. Now, tell me its name.”

  “No, you will know when you are to know, but not now. I know his mistress, and she would be most unhappy should I tell you.” Angeline smiled to the deer and knelt next to him again.

  “Seirena? You know the wretched goddess?”

  “I do. She gave me Charity here, my sacred blade.” Angeline lowered her posture, letting the deer lick the pommel.

  “Oh by the hells. So I have a reincarnated deer with a horrid personality, a flying whore that coincedintally has a blade named chastity from the goddess she knows, and a stolen horse that is likely more intelligent than you both. I think it is time for me to wake up. This dream is getting worse every hour.” Kendari walked back down the hill, wiping his blades off on his cloak.

  “My blade is named Charity, and I am no whore, Kendari. Why are you heading west, anyway?” Angeline and the deer followed, at a distance.

  “Personal matters, your goddess likely wants to see me dead somewhere. I go merely to spoil her plans and spread some blood. I have met her, unlike you.” Kendari listened for any followers, hers or the merchants. There was none.

  “Seirena does not kill, she is the Goddess of life and the earth and if she sent you---“

  “I owed you one, for saving me in Harlaheim. I saved you from rape here this night. We are more than even if I let you live. Now take the deer, shut your mouth, and leave my eyes. My business in the west is my own.” He sensed this woman wanted to converse, to travel with him, at least for awhile. His nerves crawled, his stomach churned, he could feel her sword even fifty feet away now. It made him sick.

  “I will ask the deer, he will tell me anyway. I told you next time we met, it may well be different than you expected. I am heading west also, sent by the Goddess.” Angeline sheathed her blade, followed slowly, asking the animal that was sent to watch Kendari many a question in the night in a secret tongue through the wind.

  “Good. I hope you two have many conversations together, far away from me. And it is not over yet, Angeline. If you do not tell me that name tomorrow, I will kill you.” Kendari knew he should kill her, but could not understand why he did not want to. His mind tried to rationalize why he was walking away with his swords sheathed from a woman he had fought three times and had yet to kill. He looked at the horse, pulled his blankets from behind the saddle, and laid down to sleep. He heard the sounds of the merchants that still lived,
returning over the hill to fetch their tents and wagons. His ears heard the moans of those still struggling to survive their injuries. He could tell they were packing up and heading off in fear. Kendari smiled as his eyes closed.

  “We will not be far, Kendari of Stillwood. I will see you in the morning then.” Angeline heard from the deer that Seirena had offered a form of redemption, a task he would never complete, the salvation of hundreds of thousands of lives for the ones he had destroyed. Still, he headed west to begin, more out of defiance to the Goddess than any real intent on achievement. Despite what he was, Angeline of Charity did not feel the need or urge to kill the cursed elf, unlike the last few times they had met. She sat with the deer, hearing more of his story, long into the warm Shanador night.

  Exodus IV:I

  Road to Freemoore, North of Evermont, Shanador

  Saberrak stood at the curve in the worn dry road. He looked west, nonchalant as he could, while Sir Jardayne, Sir Codaius, their fifty cavalry, and the purple and green wagon filled with little folk all passed by. He waited for Shinayne and the others, drinking from his waterskin on a knee now, nodding to those that continued on the road that they were about to leave. He looked to the sun, clouded over thankfully in the late summer heat, then glanced west as his companions approached.

  “What is it horned one?” Shinayne waved to the caravan ahead, they had stopped now and were looking back.

  “See that dark storm there, beyond those three hills and that crag?” Saberrak nodded with his horns, not wanting to point or draw curiosity.

  “Yes. And I see some sand colored rock from the foothills below the storm. This is it then, those are the foothills of the Kaki Mountains out there.” Shinayne took a deep breath.

  “What is it then? Ye all cannot be as tired as me, ye’ got longer legs and less armor. Come on then, pick up the pace.” Azenairk walked next to James, Gwenneth floating behind, as he wiped the sweat from his face with a cloth.

  “Zen, look west.” Shinayne whispered.

  He strained his eyes, his friends all around him. He saw a rolling black thundercloud far in the distance, many miles of hills and crags, no roads anywhere. Zen shook his head.