Forest of Kings

by Jack Knight

  The room went silent, and Xion was sure he could hear the words of the prophecy echoing repeatedly off the walls. The words felt dark and hopeless. The only problem was, that Xion had no idea what they meant.

  “Translation?” Xion asked Sapphire.

  Just then, the doors of the palace burst open and Xara sprinted into the room, panting and clutching her shoulder. Blood spilled out from under her palm, coloring her brown shirt red, and coating her hand a color so dark it was almost black.

  “We have a bit of a problem,” Xara announced to the room.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Torlon demanded as he stood from his throne. “You do not have permission to enter the palace!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Xara rolled her eyes. “Xion, The Hand came back.”

  Sapphire ran to Xara immediately. Her hand glowed with a white light as she placed it over Xara’s shoulder. When she removed her hand, so did Xara, revealing only a rip in her shirt and dried blood.

  “What happened?” Xion demanded, the fire inside him blazing to life in an instant.

  “They attacked out of nowhere. I came running when I heard Laira scream. She’s okay!” Xara added quickly when Sapphire gasped. “But, I don’t know about Ava. She’s gone.”

  Chapter 14: Misled

  Xion did not hesitate. “I’ll talk to you guys when I get back,” he said quickly to the kings. “I’m so sorry,” he apologized to Ari.

  “Go,” Ari insisted, concern in her eyes.

  “Wait! We are in the middle of an important…” Xion did not hear the rest of what Torlon said, because he was already out the door, following behind Xara.

  Xara did not want to waste time running down a tree and leapt from one of the rope bridges as soon as they were out of the building. Xion did not find the prospect exciting, but seconds after Xara jumped, he followed.

  Wind whipped by his face as he plummeted toward the ground. The fire inside him burst to life, and he willed himself to land softly. If it did not work, he just hoped that he would only injure himself enough that Sapphire could heal him quickly. It would be a complete waste of time if he died trying to save a few minutes of time.

  Xara hit the ground, as softly as if she had only jumped a few feet, and immediately broke into a run again. Just before Xion touched the ground, he felt a sharp tug in his stomach, and his bond with Aurum tightened in his mind. He hit the ground hard, jarring his knees and making his first step uneven, but he was not hurt.

  He sprinted after Xara, pushing himself as hard as he could. It took less than a minute to reach the small area where he had left Ava and Laira.

  Surprisingly, Tenebris was still there, standing over Laira protectively. Laira was on the ground, her face contorted in rage, with tears streaming from her eyes. Her leg was laying on the ground at an odd angle, and a cut on her cheek left a small trace of smeared, dried blood around it.

  “Which way did they go?” Xion demanded.

  Laira pointed the direction opposite of Evergreen, but she said nothing. Xion started to run where Laira was pointing, but Xara grabbed his arm.

  “What do you think you’re going to do, exactly?” she asked.

  “I’m going to go get Ava,” Xion replied. There was nothing else to be done, if Ava was in danger there was no time to stand around talking.

  “Oh yeah? You against the entire Hand of Dreskar? You going to use that sword?” Xara gestured toward the sword hanging off Xion’s hip with the hand she was not restraining him with.

  “If I have to,” Xion insisted. He knew it was not the best plan, but Ava said that if they had captured her before, she would be put to death, and Xion refused to let that happen.

  “Can you guys run slower next time?” Warren huffed as he jogged into the clearing. “I can’t cast spells on the fly like that.” He sat down on the ground, panting for breath.

  Sapphire jogged passed him and knelt down next to Laira, she placed her hands on her leg for only a second, and Laira’s shoulders sagged in relief.

  “Thank you, Sapphire,” Laira said as she stood. Sapphire only nodded solemnly in response. “If you think you’re going without me, you’re crazy.”

  “Then, let’s go!” Xion shouted. “We have to catch them before they get too far ahead of us.”

  “Xion, think,” Sapphire said as she stood. “We don’t know which way they’re headed, we don’t know how long it will take to get there, we can’t just rush off without planning.”

  “The more we think and plan, the closer Ava is to getting killed because we wasted time,” Xion insisted.

  “Seconded!” Warren called between breaths.

  “You should at least bring your bow,” Xara reasoned. “It’d be better than a sword, which for you is basically a club.”

  Xion nodded toward Evergreen. “Fine, here it comes.”

  Xion had no idea how Aurum had known what to do, but she raced into the clearing with his quiver full of arrows and his bow, and his backpack in her mouth. She ran right up to him and dropped the supplies at his feet.

  Xara let go of his arm so that he could kneel down and grab the supplies. He patted Aurum and said a quick, “Thanks, you’re the best,” before throwing the quiver over his shoulder. Aurum blinked at him, which he took to mean, “You’re welcome.”

  He stood and held out the pack to Xara. “There’s your supplies, are you coming or not?”

  Xara groaned. “This is a bad idea.” She took the pack and laced her arms through it and gestured toward where Laira had pointed. “Lead the way,” she sighed.

  “Ugh, come on, a break would’ve been nice,” Warren moaned as he got to his feet.

  “Xion, we still don’t know which way they went,” Sapphire pointed out.

  “Right, we don’t,” Xion nodded. “But, Aurum gave me an idea.” He looked Tenebris directly in his black eyes and said, “Can you lead us to Ava?”

  Tenebris snorted, Xion got the feeling that he had stayed behind specifically for that reason. Without waiting for anyone to follow, Tenebris took off into the forest at a full run.

  Xion knew that The Hand had quite a bit of a head start, and the fastest way to catch up with them would be to use magic. He doubted they could keep up a spell long enough to close the divide, though. They’re only chance now was to hope Tenebris could make it to them before they killed Ava.

  Xion chased after the giant wolf, and he could hear footsteps pounding behind him. He did not think to look back, he just assumed that everyone would be coming along. He knew that Laira coming would be a liability at best, but she had seemed so determined that he knew arguing would just be a waste of the precious time they had.

  The only thing that Xion had not thought through well enough, was how difficult it would be to keep up with a giant wolf. They ran for maybe twenty minutes before Xion heard a call behind him.

  “I can’t! I give up.” Xion turned in time to see Warren collapse onto the ground.

  Once Warren was down, Laira fell to her knees. She had a look of determination on her face, but she was breathing so quickly Xion knew she would not be able to go any farther. Xara and Sapphire were both out of breath, but seemed fine. Xion was about halfway between the two groups, panting, covered in sweat, and a little dizzy, but still standing.

  “Okay, five minute break,” Xion conceded, letting himself fall to the ground and recline against a tree.

  Tenebris returned seconds later, growling ominously at the group. Aurum skittered over to the wolf and had to recline her head so she was looking almost straight up. She glared at Tenebris as fiercely as the wolf glared at her, and neither of them moved. Xion briefly considered trying to convince her to back down, but he did not need to. After a few seconds under Aurum’s gaze, the wolf stopped growling and sat down on his haunches.

  Sapphire leaned against a tree to try to catch her breath, and Xara put her hands on her hips and looked toward the sky. “We got pretty far,” Xara commented.

  Xion looked up to see what she meant.
Sure enough, drops of rain were slowly trickling down through the leaves above them, hitting the ground at a random uneven pace. They had to have passed the boundary of Evergreen’s protection from the weather.

  “Not far enough,” Xion panted. “I don’t see anything.”

  “We need a better plan,” Warren said from the ground. Xion had not seen him lay down on his back, but he could see his chest heaving violently.

  “Running. Not good,” Laira said angrily, her face so red Xion was worried she might be sick.

  “She’s right,” Sapphire agreed. “They said they were going to put her on trial, right? That means we have a little bit of time.”

  “That’s assuming the trial lasts more than five minutes,” Xion insisted. “We can’t risk missing it.”

  “If we run for a few minutes and then stop to catch our breath the entire way,” Xara rebutted, “it’ll take longer than if we just walk.”

  Xion hated the idea of going slowly, but he knew Xara was right. It felt so much less productive, but they were all just sitting at the moment, and Ava was moving farther away every second.

  “Fine,” Xion agreed. “We walk from here, as quickly as we can, though.”

  “Thank the gods,” Warren gasped.

  “I just wish we knew where they were going,” Xion said.

  “Probably to the dragon’s tomb,” Sapphire mused. “Everything we hear about Draxis says that’s what he’s focusing on. If The Hand is helping him, they probably want to stay near it.”

  “That’s not really helpful,” Xara said, “seeing as we still don’t know where that is.”

  They took a few more minutes to catch their breath, and then started walking. Tenebris agreed to go at a slower pace, though he did not seem any happier about it than Xion did.

  The farther they went, the more the rain fell through the trees. After a few hours of walking, when the light from the sun dimmed and the forest was cast into near darkness, the rain fell hard enough that Xion would not have thought they were still in the forest at all, if they were not still surrounded by trees.

  Eventually, when everyone was shivering from the wet and cold, Sapphire insisted they stop for the night. She reasoned that The Hand was unlikely to continue in such conditions, so there was no reason they had to either. She refused Xion’s point that if The Hand had stopped, walking through the night would allow them to catch up. She insisted that if they did find them after a sleepless night, they would not have the strength to rescue Ava, anyway.

  So, after making a quick shelter out of a few dozen fallen branches placed up against trees, the five of them huddled together to sleep. Sapphire assured them that if anything approached in the night, she would be aware enough to wake them. The familiars all crowded around them, providing extra warmth, and a feeling of security.

  With a growing fear that they were wasting time, Xion fell into a restless sleep.

  “... be here soon, my lord.”

  Xion was in a large clearing. The trees around them were much farther apart than the ones he had just seen before falling asleep. It must have been very far away from where Xion was. A tall tower sprang up from the ground. It was made of smooth stone, and looked pristine and untouched, like it had been in the forest for only a day. Xion recognized it immediately, a dragon watchtower, identical to the one he had fought Draxis in so many months ago.

  In front of the building was a crowd of people, and two individuals. One of them was Dario, his helmet was under his arm, but otherwise he wore the full armor of The Hand. The other, Xion recognized immediately. He saw that face in his nightmares for weeks.

  The man’s face was perfect, the way Xion imagined the gods would look. He had shoulder length, jet black hair pushed behind his pointed ears, and eyes so black it was impossible to tell the iris from the pupil. He wore fine black pants, and a black buttoned shirt. He looked exactly like Xion remembered him. It was Draxis in his humanoid form.

  “Good,” Draxis smiled, showing all of his teeth. “Then, soon I will have my army. First, you will have Qua’ke, we can bend the the fey to our will, and if the humans haven’t destroyed themselves by then, we wipe out whatever remains of them!”

  The crowd around them cheered and raise their swords. Xion could not believe that they were all rallying behind someone so vile. How could they want to destroy all the humans? And, what did the fey have to do with anything?

  “Once we have the key to the portal, she will be tried by your laws, and if found guilty, she will be sacrificed to bring the demons to our side!” The crowd cheered again.

  “There is only one person that could stop our rise, will we let him stop us?”

  “NO!” the crowd shouted as one.

  “Will you be defeated by a child?”

  “NO!”

  “Then, make sure that our key gets here!”

  “NO!” Xion sat up under their makeshift shelter so hard he knocked several of the branches down, and slowly the rest collapsed.

  “Wasgonon,” Warren mumbled as the rain started to fall on him.

  Xara groaned, “Not cool,” she said as she rolled over and covered her face with her arm.

  “Sorry,” Xion mumbled as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “I was about to wake you all up, anyway,” Sapphire told him.

  Xion looked over to see Sapphire sitting against a tree in a small dry spot. Ferion sat in her lap, purring loudly. Laira was beside her, using a dagger to whittle down branches for arrows. Xion recognized the dagger, it was Ava’s, but he had no idea how Laira had gotten it.

  Warren groaned. “No, more sleep,” he complained as he sat up and rubbed rain off of his face.

  “We need to go now,” Xion said solemnly. He explained to everyone what he had seen in his dream as they all got up and started walking.

  “So,” Warren asked as he stumbled along with his eyes half open, “Ava’s somehow the key to opening the portal?”

  “That’s what it sounded like,” Xion answered.

  “Makes sense,” Xara said. “If she is part demon, maybe that has something to do with it.”

  “Let’s just get to her before we find out,” Xion insisted.

  “Xion’s right,” Sapphire agreed, “we can worry about the portal after Ava is safe.”

  A flash of black brought Xion to a complete stop. Everyone else took a few more steps before they noticed. Xion thought someone asked him a question, but he was already running, pulling his bow from his back as he ran.

  If the black was the armor of one of The Hand members, they might have somehow caught up to Ava’s captors. All he had to do was catch the person.

  He raced in the direction he had last seen the figure, and every few seconds he would catch glimpses of it again. After a minute or two of running, he realized it could not be armor. He saw it whip around trees and float up off the ground. Then, the person ran through a small clearing, and Xion saw that it was someone wearing a black cloak.

  Xion felt fire burn inside him, and he put on an extra burst of speed. After the small clearing, the trees opened up to a wide open area, even bigger than the clearing beneath Evergreen. He dashed after the figure who was running even faster than he was, but he only made it a few feet passed the treeline.

  Something long and green came out of nowhere, and hit the front of Xion’s entire body, throwing him backward. As he was lifted off his feet, he felt three long claws drag upward from his navel to his collarbone.

  Xion flew several feet and then his back slammed into a tree and he saw stars as he fell to the ground. Before even looking for what had hit him, he looked down to see how badly he was hurt. His shirt had been ripped to shreds, and he had long scratches along his torso, but he had a new sheet of scales covering him. They had not been there the last time he checked, but he was very thankful they had appeared when they did.

  Once he knew he was not going to bleed out, he looked up to see what had hit him and screamed in terror. There was a hulking green figure, wit
h skinny legs and chicken like feet, with three claws in the front and one in the back. Its torso was long and covered in bulging muscles. Its arms were so long that its three fingered hands trailed on the ground. The claws extending from each finger were longer than Xion’s torso. It had a small, round head with a black beard that trailed down to its navel, and tusks that protruded from its mouth. It opened its mouth and let out a roar, showing its rows of rotting, yellow and black, pointed teeth. It stood almost as tall as the trees beside it. Xion knew that he was in trouble.

  Xion scrambled to his feet and looked for his bow. He saw it a few feet away, where he had been standing when he was hit. The bow lay just feet from where the monster stood. There was no way he could get to it without the monster hitting him again.

  The beast took a step closer to Xion, and its foot crashed down right on top of Xion’s bow. “NO!” he screamed, just as his friends burst out of the forest beside him.

  “Nope,” Warren said immediately when he saw the monster and tried to duck back into the forest.

  Xara grabbed him without looking away from the monster. “You’re not running,” she said calmly.

  “What is that?” Laira asked in disgust.

  “It’s a troll, now let me go,” Warren struggled.

  “Did anyone see what I was chasing?” Xion asked, looking across the open area to where the figure had disappeared.

  “Xion, focus,” Sapphire said briskly.

  “Right,” Xion looked at the troll again, “Warren, info.”

  Warren groaned and stopped fighting. He took a deep breath and recited, “Trolls are related to giants, their bite is infectious, and they rip their prey apart. They also heal extremely quickly, only wounds from fire don’t regenerate, and… they aren’t as stupid as the ogre we fought, but not smart.”