“I cannot say what happened to Faolan. But we will honor him here today as well, for he is lost and most likely fallen alongside his parents. An empty grave has been marked next to Kellen and Auvelia so that if his body does one day return to us, we will be able to bury him with his family in peace.
“Faolan was a new inductee to the Shadow Guardians. He showed great promise and vast potential to be a strong guardian of Harmaalinna. He suffered from amnesia but did not let his ailment prevent a future of hope and purpose. He moved forward with his new title and position with confidence and poise, showing great leadership and honor as he strived to protect those in his company. He put his life before his friends’. He will be missed and remembered.”
The king paused.
“Please, citizens, soldiers, and friends of Lesley, hold these three in your hearts, and do not forget their sacrifices for you. Our bond is strong, and this kingdom is one. Together we will move forward and honor those who fall.”
The king stopped speaking and waited several minutes with a lowered head as he honored the fallen soldiers. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He motioned to several elf maidens, and they laid flowers on the fresh mounds of the three graves. Then he began to walk away from the ceremony to leave all to pay their respects.
Slowly, citizens departed, and soldiers went back to duty. Fewer and fewer individuals remained behind at the graves.
Soon, those who remained were just the direct party members who had traveled with the departed: Treasach, Leith, and Aili.
Tears rolled down Aili’s cheeks as she stood at the foot of Faolan’s empty grave. Leith rubbed her back in comfort, and he stood silently next to her with a heavy heart.
Treasach stared at their gravestones. As he stood there, looking at the words carved into the headstones, he was poignantly affected by the loss of those he had unknowingly grown close to. He had traveled with them all, but it was not until that moment that he realized they truly had touched his life and that he would indeed miss them.
Leith felt something land on his arm, and he looked down to see a snowflake melting. He glanced up and saw snow beginning to fall as clouds had developed out of nowhere. It had been sunny not too long ago. He looked at Aili and could see her eyes were glowing a vibrant blue, and he realized the Ikalreev magic had been activated by her deep sorrow and had begun affecting the environment.
Leith urged Aili to go, believing she needed to rest after grieving for so long—and to hopefully prevent Lesley from falling into a deep winter. He put an arm around her shoulders and escorted her away from the graves. They departed the ceremony, but Treasach did not.
He stayed. He stared. He thought.
He was a prince; a prince who failed them. He stood there through the rest of the evening and into the night as the garden district grew dark. His form faded into the shadows, but he remained, paying respect and remembering those he had failed. Something changed in Treasach that night.
Chapter 9
Searching for Redemption
They will search for their redemption and roam the lands for their purpose. Guided without the light, they can be dangerous or gentle.
The Ikalreev Prophecies 9:7–8
The cold north winds battered the high-altitude Niyere Mountains. Snow covered the jagged landscape, except for the near-vertical mountainsides. The sky was covered with a thick blanket of white clouds, precipitating waves of fresh snow.
It was hard for Waremasu and Zauvek to walk through the thick snowpack and along the steep slopes. They were not affected by the cold, but the snowfall still made it hard to see as they shielded their eyes, and the deep pack provided agitating resistance to their steps.
Two days had passed since their confrontation with the archangel at the seal. Their progress was slow, and it was hard for them to maintain bearing toward the west. At times there were whiteout conditions, and they remained stationary until their visibility improved. The terrain occasionally caused them to backtrack and find another route. It was an inhospitable region and a most annoying journey for Zauvek.
Snow accumulated on Zauvek’s wiry locks, freezing them stiff. Waremasu’s hat developed a layer of snow on top. Their clothing had become laden with moisture as they trudged through the unkind mountains.
Zauvek grumbled, “We have no idea where we are going.”
He scanned into the snow but struggled to see far.
“I hate the snow . . .” he mumbled.
He peered down over the cliff next to the mountain shelf they stood on. He could not see the bottom through the dense snowfall.
“Waremasu, can you see anything?” He glanced back at the distant form overlooking the cliff farther back. No answer was provided to his question; he didn’t even know if Waremasu could hear him. He observed his ally cautiously.
They were searching for the same individual, but only one of them knew the truth about what had transpired to cause their fall from Heaven. He remained wary of his companion and was unsure how to tell his unstable ally, if he should at all. For now, he settled on keeping it a secret until he had devised a plan.
He stepped laboriously toward his shrouded companion through the knee-high snow. He used one hand to lean against the ascending cliff face as the ledge narrowed.
“Waremasu?” he shouted. “Waremasu, can you hear me?”
The conical hat swiveled toward Zauvek, and it tipped forward slightly in confirmation.
“What are you doing?” he yelled through the swelling wind.
Waremasu pointed down over the cliff, beyond Zauvek’s sight. Zauvek trudged forward and searched according to the directional cue.
He narrowed his eyes and focused on the distance. Between the swelling gusts of snow, there were moments of clarity, and he could see them: demons walking on a ledge not far below on a nearby mountain face.
“There are quite a few of them. Do you think the archangel left?” Zauvek questioned. “He would not have let them through if he was still there.”
Waremasu nodded.
They watched the scrambling stream of evil creatures clawing their way across the mountainside. They recognized the main foot soldiers, two horns and two hooves, half goat. Several ten-legged arachnids accompanied them, as well as a new, stronger breed.
The new breed of demon had four eyes; a long, serrated beak; and birdlike feet with deadly talons. Massive horns rose from its head, and long sharp claws extended from its fingers. Their thighs were feathered, but their chests and backs were bare, covered by the characteristic charred-black skin with lavalike cracks. Sharp bone protrusions pierced their forearms in circular series, elbows to wrists, as well as down the distal half of the demon’s lizard-like tail. They were more massive than the half-goat foot soldiers, and more formidable.
“We should follow them,” Zauvek said as he eyed their rather organized procession winding through the mountains.
Waremasu nodded.
“How do we get over there?” he wondered as he looked around for a pathway over, but all he could see was steep cliff face below and to either side of him. They seemed to be cut off from the other mountain.
“Should we head back and see if we can find a way over?” he asked his ally.
Waremasu glanced around and gauged their surroundings. The mountain trail they traveled seemed to wind in a southeastern heading, but the demons were traveling on a northwest-bound trail, from what they could see. If they continued to travel on their current route, they might lose track of the evil creatures. They could not afford that as they were the only lead that they currently had on potentially finding Razbijen.
They had no idea where the demons had taken him and could only guess which way to travel now. The archangel had said west, but Razbijen’s current location could be moving and in a different direction now.
He knew they had to double back if they were going to have any chance at following the evil creatures to wherever they were heading. They seemed eerily organized, walking together without
infighting. They were heading somewhere, and the two of them needed to follow.
Waremasu placed a hand on Zauvek’s shoulder and motioned for the old man to follow him. He began walking back east along the narrow cliff trail, trudging through the deep snow. Zauvek followed close behind, carefully placing his staff and leaning against the ascending cliff.
They meandered along the trail for hours as they backtracked, and at times they did lose sight of the trail of demons among the neighboring cliffs and mountainsides.
The winds gusted from the north, and the snow did not let up. The trail tilted downward and began winding toward another mountain as they grew closer, and the valley narrowed.
Their trail eventually met up with the one that the demons traveled. They paused before they stepped on the merging path and, from a distance through the obscuring snowfall, watched the demons as they passed.
Other than the three main breeds they identified, there was the occasional bizarrely constructed demon, body parts a mix of lizard, bird, and hoofed animal. Pairs of eyes numbered between one and three. Some had claws, though not all. Some were quite big; others were small as rabbits.
Waremasu and Zauvek waited for an opening in the procession, but none came. It was a constant stream of evil creatures coming from the seal. Hundreds in file traveling through the Niyere Mountains toward a destination that neither of them knew. An eerie organization consumed their movements; it was unheard of for evil creatures to behave in such an ordered manner.
Zauvek grumbled, “This won’t work. There is no way to follow them like this.”
He thought for a moment but remained stumped. “What do you suggest?”
Waremasu looked at him and pointed upward.
Zauvek followed the directional finger and could barely make out a ledge higher up, which looked untraveled.
“How do you expect us to get up there?” Zauvek asked.
Waremasu looked up and stared at the ledge for a moment, then looked back at Zauvek. He put a finger up before the dark shroud surrounding his face, in a hushing gesture.
Zauvek grew concerned. “Wai—”
Waremasu grabbed the back of Zauvek’s collar and pants and whipped his ally upward with great strength. Zauvek went flying, arms and legs flailing wildly in desperate opposition. The old man was distressed but held in his cries, hoping not to alert the demons below his flying form.
He flew over the lip of the ledge higher up and landed on the snow-padded surface. He let out a deep sigh as he relaxed from the unexpected flight.
After a moment, he sat up and looked back down at Waremasu, who was waiting for a sign from him.
Zauvek motioned that he was all right.
The demons still walked below Zauvek’s ledge, none the wiser, traveling on the pathway as it curved slightly northwest.
Waremasu glanced around at the cliff faces above him and seemed to be eyeing the rocks. He glanced at the demons for a moment, making sure they did not see him, then he took several steps backward.
He paused, then raced forward, light-stepping along the cliff faces in a wall-run. He reached the higher-altitude ledge and stopped next to Zauvek.
He looked back and heard a sound. A tapping. Their eyes gravitated toward a rock as it bounded down the cliff face, clacking loudly as it hit the mountain on its way down. Zauvek tensed as he realized Waremasu had loosened a rock on his way up the wall.
The old man grumbled, “Damn.”
The stone hit one of the beaked demons, and it screeched from the strike.
Zauvek whipped back and lay down in the snow, and Waremasu dropped into a prone position as they tried to hide from the alerted demons. They could hear hissing and snarling as the demons below searched for movement above their position.
The roars and hissing persisted for a moment but died down when they saw nothing. The demons slowly resumed their march forward as they eyed their surroundings, more alert than before.
Zauvek breathed a sigh of relief as they waited a few more minutes before standing up.
Once they were back on their feet, they looked over the ledge at the line of creatures walking below them. The mountain path wove toward the northwest, and they saw theirs paralleled above it for as far as they could see. The path wove around a bend in the mountainside several hundred yards away. They would have to figure out what to do if their path ended, but now was not the time to concern themselves with that problem.
They began walking along the narrow ledge, hugging tightly to the ascending cliff. The snow gusted, and the winds wailed through the tightly packed mountains. The high altitude was harsh and provided little cover from the elements. They could barely see their next step through the dense snow. Bitter cold snapped at their skin but had no effect on the two fallen angels. Their forms and wings were hidden since their fall, but their fragmented abilities and bloodline kept them from frostbite.
The mountains curved and blended together in jagged spires and cliffs. They wove among the mountain paths following the evil procession. At times, they had to leap to a nearby ledge or cliff because theirs was ending.
Little changed in the creatures’ movements or pace. Waremasu and Zauvek could not tell where they were heading or why they were traveling as a group. The creatures should be clawing and killing each other while running amok on Verdunmull and causing chaos, but that was not the case. Other than a couple of scuffles, they traveled unhindered.
The two hidden angels continued to shadow the procession toward the northwest as it wound through the mountain passes. There was no sign of civilization in the harsh Niyere range.
They hoped by following the creatures that they would come upon Razbijen, though in truth they had no knowledge of the lost angel’s whereabouts.
There they roamed, dangerously close to an immortal battle, on their way through the unknown.
Chapter 10
The Kalnorian
Those in the mountains will stay in their holes and fight out the night. Those in the plains and forests will build shelter on vulnerable ground.
The Ikalreev Prophecies 23:5–6
Time passed. Hours blurred into days. People arrived from all over. Many dwarven women and children streamed into the city, accompanied by too few dwarven soldiers. A few groups of humans had found their way to Lesley. Some were just human families scared of the rumors. On one day, two entire towns of humans showed up at the front gates. It was difficult to find space for everyone, but the great city of Lesley made do and provided for the refugees streaming in their gate.
Frequently, Aili caught wind of demon sightings, close calls, and deaths. One family had come across a dead man in the middle of a road. There was no village nearby; it was just a random man dead in the road without identification. They ran past the body as quickly as they could because they were frightened something evil was watching them.
So the days rolled on. News about the surrounding lands trickled into the city. Refugees continued to come, and fortifications were reinforced. Aili continued to seek out any information concerning her friends or the stranger who saved her, though little information came to her.
She held on to her hope as she tended the wounded and ailing. Her brother assisted her every day. They were the best healers in Harmaalinna, and it showed. Everyone they treated improved in health and eventually left their care. The king had provided them with a few assistants and given them a building to use as their infirmary.
Their deeds spread, and they became household names in Lesley. Their care provided hope for many families and kept them from breaking and from sorrow setting in. The twin healers were a small light in the dimming days.
Aili was taking inventory of their stock. They were running low on clean cloth and a few medicinal plants used for healing salves. She made some notes on a parchment to keep track of what they needed.
“Leith, I am headed to Trilindil’s market and the military ring. Do you need anything?” Aili shouted over her shoulder.
Leith stuck his
head out from around a corner with a peculiar smile. “Can you get me some of those sweet . . . things . . . that the humans brought with them?”
“Strawberries or pineapples?” she asked.
“Pineapples, that is it!”
“Anything else?”
Leith shook his head. “No, that is all. Those fruit are so delicious. I have to get one every time I go to the market.”
“Your cravings are so unusual for an elf. How did I get stuck with you as my brother?” she said.
“Too late now, no backsies,” Leith said as he disappeared back around the corner.
“That is unfortunate,” she jokingly whispered to herself as she stood up.
“All right, I am off,” she said.
But before she could leave, Leith shouted after her. “Wait, can you get me six cubic feet of blue cloth and three pounds of feathers?”
“Three pounds of feathers?” she exclaimed. “The fletchers will not like that. I doubt they will hand over that many feathers. What do you need them for?”
Leith popped back around the corner with an aged pillow, holding it up for her to see. “A project . . .”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, my pillow needs to be replaced. My neck is sore,” he said as he rubbed his neck.
She sighed. “Fine, I will try. But no promises. The fletchers will give me an earful over their orders for arrows needed at the walls.”
“Thank you.” He smiled and disappeared around the corner again. “You are the best sister to be stuck with!” he shouted from the other side of the wall.
She lowered her head and sighed, then walked out of the infirmary, closing the door behind her.
Aili glanced around when she stepped on the small road in front of their infirmary and saw many people traveling its length. Most were elves, but the population of dwarfs and humans had increased over the past few weeks as refugees continued to flow into Lesley, and they were seen more frequently on the roads these days.
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