She looked away from me, up at the tree’s apple laden branches, and my keen elf eyes soon sought out the specific apple she was gazing longingly at. It was large, juicy, and redder than almost every other apple hanging from the tree and was also completely out of her reach because it was the highest of all the apples.
‘Do you want that one?’ I asked, jerking my chin towards the apple.
She nodded, biting her bottom lip before saying ‘it’s so high though, so any one of the others would be fine.’
‘No, you want that one, so it’s that one you shall get’ I replied, not intending to let her eat any other apple but the one she wanted.
Holding my hand above the leaves littering the forest floor, I drew my fingers into a slight claw and raised my hand, curling my wrist, and cast my hand, flat, towards the tree and up before dropping my arm.
Fallon stared, transfixed, as a cluster of the leaves began to spiral upwards towards the big juicy apple; pulling it gracefully from its branch and flying it down to her, into the palm of her open hand.
‘That was amazing!’ she gasped, glancing from the apple to me and back again. Bringing the apple to her mouth she took a big bite out of it, ‘it’s delicious! It’s so sweet, and crisp’ she grinned, wiping away a bit of juice that was dribbling down her chin.
‘They’re the best apples you’ll eat. We’ve got a supply of them back at the palace, but I thought you’d like to see the tree they came from and eat an apple fresh from its branch,’ I replied, returning the grin before becoming serious again. ‘Come on, we should be getting back, I expect Finn and his troupe will have come up with a plan about tomorrow.’
***
‘Evander, there’s something I meant to ask you the other day as we left Malakhi’s store, but then we found out about my parents and I forgot all about it’ Fallon said as we entered the palace grounds again through the front gates.
‘What is Toralin?’
‘Toralin is Orfedil’s currency. My parents created it when they were building the kingdom, and worked out the equivalent of Toralin to currencies in the human world.’
‘That’s cool! What is one Toralin in Euros?’ she asked, sounding intrigued.
‘I think it’s about five,’ I replied, ‘but for some reason the exchange rate of Galodins - that’s the currency of my grandparents’ and great-uncles’ kingdoms - to other currencies is weird.’
Fallon frowned as we reached the Scouts’ quarters, ‘what do you mean?’
‘Well, one Galodin is equal to about a grand in Pound Sterling. Before the Galodins are actually handed out to the citizens of each country - or kingdom - and store owners, it’s…uh…you know, it’s a little complicated to explain, so I think we should leave it until we’ve returned from our quest for your parents’ I replied.
‘I look forward to it’ she smiled, as I knocked on the door.
A few seconds later, the door opened and Finn, his tanned face now clean-shaven, greeted us with a smile, his soft grey eyes twinkling happily down at us.
‘Evander, Fallon! Come on in’ he said, stepping back to allow us inside.
Closing the door behind me after allowing Fallon in ahead of me, I turned to Finn.
‘So, have you come up with a plan to get us into the Thrangorn Mountains, and Arekin’s headquarters without being seen?’ I asked as he led us through to into the lounge, where the other Scouts who had given up the first two days of their vacation time to help us with our quest were waiting for us, either sitting one of the three sofas in the room, in an armchair or cross legged on the floor.
‘You bet we have. Take a seat, and we’ll fill you in’ he replied, gesturing with his arm towards the end of one of the occupied sofas and waiting for us to sit down before taking a seat beside Fallon on the end, before explaining what they had come up with.
‘From the information we’ve gathered, since Arekin and his elves took up residence in the mountains, we’ve determined that the best time to go in would either be at the dead of night or very early in the morning. Your thoughts?’
I was all for going in the dead of night, but it was up to Fallon since it was her parents we were heading into the mountains to find, and turned to her to see what her thoughts on it were.
Every pair of eyes seemed to be on her as she sat between Finn and I, not saying a word as she thought about what Finn had said and looking down with her hands limp in her lap.
After a couple of minutes, she lifted her head and addressed everyone as she spoke by scanning the room with her eyes. ‘I think that going late in the evening, maybe eleven, when there isn’t much visibility would be our best bet, as Arekin’s look outs - if indeed he has any - wouldn’t be able to see us.’
Everyone nodded in agreement at her decision and then Finn said, ‘we’ll be following behind you on the ground the whole way, and will cover you once we get into Arekin’s headquarters.’
The two of us nodded, and then Fallon frowned. ‘Wait, what do you mean “following behind you on the ground”?’ she asked.
‘Ah, something you might not know or remember about Avadorae is that we are half angel, but we don’t get our wings until we turn sixteen’ I replied.
‘Oh right…Oh! Now that you mention it, I think I remember seeing your mother take flight one day when I was little’ she replied, a happy smile splitting her face, dimples showing at the corners of her mouth.
The fact that she’d remembered something from her past that was linked to me warmed my heart, though I wasn’t sure why, let myself smile back at her, and then turned to Finn as he led us back to the door ‘we’ll meet you at the palace gates about eleven?’
‘Yes, we will. Did you here that guys? Eleven o’clock sharp, so if you want a nap beforehand, I’d take one now’ he replied with a nod, shouting back over his shoulder so that his elves would hear. ‘Right then you two,’ he said as he opened the door and we stepped out into the cool, autumn afternoon. ‘We shall see you at eleven.’
Fallon and I nodded in affirmation, heading back to the palace next door to have a rest before dinner and the start of our quest.
The Thrangorn Mountains
At five to eleven, I grabbed the bag containing our supplies and left my room to meet Fallon outside hers, and after I handed her the backpack the two of us headed outside to meet Finn and the other Scouts, who were already waiting for us at the gates.
‘Are you two ready for this?’ Finn asked as we stopped in front of them, though I had the distinct feeling he might be asking Fallon more than me.
‘Yep, we’re all ready to go’ she replied with a smile, holding up her pale denim backpack, in which we had put everything we’d gathered for the trip, for him to see.
‘How long is the journey to the mountains?’ I asked, as Finn and the others mounted their steads, one of them taking the reins of an extra horse at the back.
‘Three and a half hours on horseback, but I can’t say how long if you’re flying’ he replied, taking up the reins of his own horse, an Arabian mare called Shadow, as the guards opened the gates.
‘You guys can’t fly?’ Fallon asked, a look of surprise on her face.
He shook his head, ‘the only ones who can fly are the descendants of Queen Iona and King Gardohil: the families of Ledoran, Idanei, Rendor, and Orfedil. Everyone else is either elf, human or half and half - but that can be explained in more detail another time’ Finn replied, turning to me ‘we’ll head off now so we’re not so far behind you after you take flight’ he said, and then he and his Scout troupe spurred their horses into a gallop and sped off through the open gates.
‘Well then Fallon, are you ready?’ I asked, turning to her as I spoke.
She let out a long sigh and smiled ‘as ready as I’ll ever be…how do we proceed?’
‘Well, um…first, are you going to take the bag, or am I?’
‘I’ll take it, it’s fine’ she replied, almost immediately.
‘Good, there’s that settled. Now, um…I think th
e safest way to fly with you, would be for me to carry you like-like I did when I brought you here from the beach.’
Fallon’s cheeks flushed a light pink ‘you…you flew me back here in your arms?’
I nodded, smiling softly at her, ‘are you okay with that?’
‘Yes, I mean it’s the safest way of taking me all the way to the Thrangorn Mountains…so go ahead and pick me up.’
I felt a slight jolt within my chest. Not allowing the surprise show on my face, and gently lifted her off the ground, Fallon wrapping her arms around my neck so that she wouldn’t fall from my arms and pressed herself against my chest.
‘Here we go’ I told her as I unfurled my angel wings, and bent my knees; pushing off the ground and into the air, my wings taking me up and above the palace in seconds.
‘What was it like…getting your wings?’ Fallon asked as I caught up with Finn and his troupe.
‘Painful, but the pain only lasted a few seconds’ I replied, flying a little lower to avoid a bird flying in our direction.
‘Is your father Avadorae too?’
‘No, he is not. Before coming to Elandrea with my mother, he thought he was human like everyone else back in the human world. They both continued to believe as much, until his birth father’s voice spoke to him one day in his mind, and they met face to face at a ball at my grandparents’ palace. It turned out my father was a lord of Emohn, though for some reason his ears hadn’t taken on the pointed tip that distinguishes elf from human yet. No one was surprised that his eyes didn’t change drastically in colour though; only Avadorae eyes have a mix of colours. However, it’s not uncommon for some elves to have small flecks of another colour in their eyes.’
‘I see…how long did it take for his ears to develop their pointed tip?’
I chuckled and glanced down at her ‘you’re full of questions, aren’t you? It didn’t take too long…a few months, he told me, and my brothers asked that same question.’
‘I want to get to know you…I haven’t seen you since I was a kid’ she murmured, and I looked down to see her looking up at me, amber-brown eyes glistening.
I was about to reply, when I spotted the light of a castle flickering into view between two mountains of different height as I flew closer, and banked right towards Finn and the others. Slowing down the beat of my wings, I told Fallon to hold on tightly to my neck and pulled my wings in tight against my back before pointing myself downward, and shot towards the ground like a torpedo.
Spreading my wings when I was feet away from the ground, I wafted them back and forth until my feet touched the ground in front of the Scouts, as they pulled their horses to a stop upon seeing my descent seconds before.
‘I’ve just spotted Arekin’s castle,’ I said, setting Fallon gently down on the ground beside me. ‘It’s nestled between those two mountains’ I pointed north-west of where we were, as a Scout named Seamus handed me the reins of my dapple grey Irish Hunter, Dempsey.
‘Right then, let’s go’ Finn announced after I had mounted Dempsey and pulled Fallon up behind me.
And so, we set off in the direction had spotted the torch-light of Arekin’s castle - or, at least the castle we hoped was his.
***
Half an hour later, a large cluster of trees either side of a narrow dirt road, leading up between two mountains came into view on our left as we rounded a corner. Half way, just visible through the branches of the many trees growing on the mountain face, was the unmistakable flickering of torch-light.
‘We had better leave the horses down here. They might be able to get us up the mountain, but we won’t want to waste time when we get to the castle trying to find somewhere to tie them’ I suggested when we came to a stop at the edge of the forest (there were so many trees, it might as well be one). The others nodded in agreement and so, after everyone had dismounted and the horses had been tied to a couple of trees grazing on leaves and grass, we set off up the mountain towards the castle.
‘Say, Fallon, you know you had those ballet shoes in your bag when you arrived here?’ I asked fifteen minutes later, as we continued to push our way through overhanging tree branches and tried not to trip over the naked roots protruding from the forest floor, walking side-by-side.
‘Yes?’
‘Have you ever taken ballet lessons?’
‘No…at least not formal lessons. Mammy was a bit of a dancer when she was a teenager, and I wanted to learn ballet after watching a video of her in a dance recital, so she taught me a bit when I was four or five, and then left me to my own devices. She said she had taught me enough for me to learn the rest on my own. I haven’t stopped since, I still practised at my foster parents’ house when they were out of the house or downstairs’ she replied.
‘Ah…I’d love to see you dancing ballet. You’ll have to show me sometime’ I said with a grin in her direction, which she returned before tripping over a large exposed tree root and falling, face first, towards the ground.
‘Fallon!’
Acting on instinct, I caught her around the waist and pulled her gently to me, both arms now wrapped around her as I held her in front of me.
We were face to face, our noses almost touching. Fallon’s cheeks were turning a dark shade of pink.
‘Thanks’ she said in voice close to a whisper.
‘No problem’ I replied, swallowing as I felt my own cheeks flush for what seemed like the hundredth time, and pulled her back up.
‘Oi! Stop flirting you two,’ Finn said up ahead of us.
‘We’re here.’
Arekin
Fallon and I looked up past Finn, and saw the castle towering above us. It was at least two stories high, with five parapets spread widely apart, and arrow slits a few metres below the parapet walks, along with holes that would most likely be used to pour boiling hot oil onto attackers - but I couldn’t see any signs that that these had been used in the ten years since Arekin’s disappearance - or simply been thoroughly cleaned.
‘Can you see any soldiers or guards in the parapets, or along the walks to them?’ I asked Finn, who was closer to the castle than we were, in a low tone in case there were indeed any sentries on watch.
He stared up at the castle, narrowing his eyes to slits as he ran his eyes over what he could see.
‘Doesn’t look like it, but then they could be hiding anywhere.’
‘Isn’t part of your job covering us, and finding and taking out anyone or anything that attempts to stop us?’ I enquired, raising an eyebrow.
He grinned ‘you bet it is. Go, we’ll cover you - and before you say it, I know: don’t kill unless absolutely necessary.’
I nodded and held out my hand. Finn clasped it and the two of us squeezed lightly - a way of showing trust in our culture - before letting go.
‘Come on Fallon’ I said, and the two of us moved past the Scouts towards the castle to find a way in.
Keeping our bodies low in case any sentries suddenly appeared on the parapet walks, Fallon and I made our way up to the left-hand side of the castle, the Scouts following behind with bows and arrows trained upwards as they went, until I spotted a door concealed behind a curtain of ivy. Turning back to Finn and the Scouts, who had stopped and were waiting for further instructions, I beckoned them over before turning back to figure out how to open it - only to find it was already open, and Fallon was stood inside the passage it led into, and slipping something back into one of the leather boots my parents had made for her during the time we were searching through all the Scouts’ reports.
‘How did you open the door?’ I whispered, as the others appeared behind me.
‘I’ll tell you later’ she whispered back and headed off down the passage into the heart of the castle.
After taking several lefts and rights, and what must have been at least half an hour, the passage leads out onto a long, grey stone, low-lit corridor.
Using a few one-handed gestures, I told the Scouts to head right, while Fallon and I would head left, out of t
he passage. They nodded, and after checking the coast was clear, turned right out of the passage, Fallon and I following soon after and turning left.
‘So, where would Arekin be if he’s in the castle?’ Fallon whispered as we crept along another corridor, having taken a right barely two minutes after leaving the passage opening.
‘I don’t know,’ I whispered back ‘we’ll have to keep an ear out for voices wherever we go.’
She was about to nod her understanding when I threw my arm out in front of her.
We had come to the end of the corridor, and ahead of us was an open walkway with balustrades on either side.
‘We’ll need to crawl and keep low if we are to cross this unnoticed’ I told her in an undertone, and the two of us dropped to our hands and kneese; crawling across the walkway towards the other side, when Fallon grabbed my arm and pointed at the left-hand side of the walkway. Crawling over while being careful to keep our heads down, we peered through the gap between two balustrade pillars.
Down below, we could see a gathering of elves - thirty in all - in armour sat around a long mahogany table. At the head of the table, in a chair larger and grander looking than the others despite being the same make sat an elf with blond hair tied into a high pony-tail, handsome despite the ugly white scar stretching from the top of his left cheek bone above his ear, to his jawbone.
‘Is that Arekin?’ Fallon mouthed.
I nodded, thinking back to the last time I saw him, two years before he broke off from the Portal Guard, when he first got the scar. You would never have guessed what he was planning to do.
I jerked my head towards the end of the walkway and mouthed ‘we’ll be able to talk again once we’ve gone across.’
Once we had passed over the walkway and were safely out of earshot, we resumed our conversation.
Descendants of Erodis Page 17