"Stay here don't show yerself." The old soldier told Cybelline, "Most of the soldiers don't like being here and they're skittish, they kill first and ask questions later. I'll come back for you around nightfall." He left food and water for her before leaving.
Cybelline watched as he left and stood up. Silently, she trailed the old man, her movements as lithe as a cat. While she was no longer the international spy, the years of blending into the shadows were second nature to her. She followed him up the stream and to the edge of a clearing where a great many white tents stood in the cool morning. In the circle of green, the sea of tents rose like the crest of wave on the ocean.
Men in gleaming armor cleaned their swords while others cooked or talked by their morning fires. A great many squires in green or teal livery trotted around, acting as couriers for their lords.
Cybelline zeroed in the ten blue tents in center of the sea of white. Six blue hooded figures walked out, their silver edged robes pooling around them like water. They bowed to one another and separated, each followed by ten youths in blue tunics.
Cybelline turned her attention back onto the old solider as he walked into the camp and stood attention with the other soldiers. Some, as shabbily dressed as he, smiled and greeted him while others looked on with disinterest. A bugle sounded, and the men lined up.
Sixteen knights, dressed in silver armor with engraving that glowed gold, rode into the camp, led by a man with a gold circlet. He surveyed the large gathering of men in front of him, "For centuries the Folk have ignored our borders. They steal our food and curse our lands, so the harvest grows weaker by the year." Men growled at this as the man continued, "Kill as many as you can, leave no spawn alive. Take back what is rightfully yours!" The men roared in approval.
The man raised a hand, a knight rode out and bowed, "My King." The king nodded, "Sir Jaan, you have command of this company. You will have Head Mage Azara and her acolytes to company you. I must go and see the other five companies off. May the Gods be with you. " And rode off with the rest of the knights and mages.
The knight turned to the company and ordered, "Forward!"
The company of 500 marched deeper into the forest.
Cybelline followed from behind, careful to avoid the scouts in the forrest. She stayed at the tail of the company, listening to the men gossip.
"By the gods, if I find a First Blood Fae I'm going to kill it with my bare hands" A man muttered to his companion. His companion rolled his eyes "Yer more likely to trip on a diamond, it's been a thousand years since the last Fae had shown its face. Now even the Folk are scarce"
The other man chuckled, "We burned an entire village of Six Blood mongrels yesterday, they're not even true shapeshifters." He sighed, "Too bad they don't have that much magic. I had to kill twenty for just a drop of Folk Blood gem, and it's the worst quality. Burning them to find that one drop of Life Magic took so much time." He opened his hand to reveal a deep red teardrop, almost the color of blood.
"A drop of that will give you an extra year of life." His companion shook his head, "But it's half poison, and ye can't take too many. I took all the Life Magic drops I owned and traded it for this." He held up a green stone, "Know what this is?"
Cybelline looked closer, it was like the blue stone Riggans had given her yesterday, with the strange green marking on it.
"The healin' crystal" The soldier recognized it immediately, "I only have one and I've been at this fer twenty years."
"Aye." The other soldier answered, "Mined in the fields by the dwarf slaves. It can feed a man's family for thirty years, they say. Near priceless for the likes of us. Will save ye life if yer near death."
A peal of laughter broke through their musings. They looked towards the center of the company where a girl acolyte in blue tunic took an offering of fruit from one of the younger knights.
"I wish had mage blood." The soldier sighed, "My life would be so easy then."
"Even if you had it, do ye think ye could become a mage? Ye would have to be from one of the great families. Only they have can afford the kind of Folk Blood gems that turns humans into powerful mages. And then ye would have to continually get Power Stones to keep ye magic strong." The soldier shook his head, "Ye have to be born with a silver spoon in ye mouth already."
"If I find a Fae Blood gem, even a lower blood one, it'll make me richer than a king." His friend argued, "I could become a mage then."
They looked enviously at the mages that accompanies their troops, as these people wore the best clothes and rode the best horses while the rest of them were on foot.
"Fan out." The knight called out, interrupting them. "If you see something, sound the signal."
The men spread out walked into the dense undergrowth of the Forest. Cybelline looked around and found a tree with low hanging branches. Quietly she climbed up to watch the progress below.
Cybelline studied the men. Dressed in tunics and holding spears, they looked more like they were in a medieval movie than real life. Except there was magic. And what the hell are the Fae and the Folk? She remembered the body pile from yesterday, they had all looked like real people yesterday.
No. Not quite. The cool, logical voice in her head sounded as her years of training took over.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to remember. Some of them had pig snouts. Others had rabbit ears. Others had muzzles, and some had claws for hand. Some looked more human than the others. They looked like a mix of humans and animals.
A rising sense of panic grew in her as the terror of being buried alive came back at her. She shook her head and pushed her feelings away. Focus she told herself, focus on the present. When you have time, you can deal, but right now it's about surviving in this new world. And to do that you have to learn.
Suddenly, one of the men roared. A flash of magic and all the soldiers converged onto that area
Cybelline quietly headed for the direction.
"Mages!" Six blue robed people ran forward and began to chant in a strange language. The soldiers formed a circle around them as they did their work.
Cybelline stared at the creature who was surrounded by hundreds of humans.
Tall, with white skin and icy white hair, its face lighted by the blue flame it held in its hands. It looked human, except for the deep purple eyes and the pair of pointed ears. Unbelievable beautiful, almost inhumanely so, it growled with rage as the mages and hundreds of soldiers surrounded her. Her deep green robes fanned around her, buoyed by her magic.
An Elf? Cybelline was reminded of the Elves in Lord of the Ring. Except this Elf was a hundred times more beautiful. She looked nothing like the half-human, half-animal people from yesterday.
"Erste Fin!" It cried in a high trilling voice "Erste fin rache amrae!"
Cybelline fell to her knees, there was suddenly unbearable pressure in her brain. It was as if someone was hammering the top of her head. The pressure travel from her brain and through her body.
"Don't let it waste too much magic." The blue robed mage with a strip of silver roared at the other two, "It's a Fourth Blood Folk! Highly rare! We haven't found one in sixty years!"
"Erste Fin" It cried again, in its strange lilt. "Korai iariuth sum noiare" A shield of turquoise rose up around the elf, forcing the army back.
Suddenly, Cybelline felt a coolness creep into her veins, soothing the pounding headache in an instant. Cybelline looked down at her hand, the outline of the gold ring glowed black on her skin for a moment and then everything returned to normal.
"Filthy humans!" The elf cried imperiously as she threw more magic into her blue shield "Does your hunger know no bounds?"
Wasn't she speaking a completely different language a while ago? Cybelline frowned, how could she understand the elf? The words still sounded foreign to Cybelline, but it all the same, she knew what the elf had said.
The mages spoke in unison and raised their hands. Their magic flared and rammed toward the shield
The elf began to glow blue, "Die!"
She pointed to one of the mages, a ball of blue light issuing forth from her hands attacking the mage. The mage screamed and turned into dust, taking five of the surrounding soldiers with him.
"Hurry, before she kills us all!" The lord knight roared at the mages. Their chanting increased.
"Head Mage! She's too powerful, we're not strong enough!" one of the acolyte mages.
Suddenly, the Head Mage raised a black stone in the air, "BREAK!" She cried and crushed the stone. The deep purple magic in it rushed at the blue shield.
The elf's magical shield cracked. Five spears, with spearhead made of icy blue magical stones, ran through her chest and the eye-smarting blue light extinguished like a flame.
The look of anguish never left the elf's face as she died.
"Hurry, burn her while she's fresh." The head mage ordered her acolytes. Her face was ashy as she leaned again a soldier. She took out six green stones and began to restore her powers.
Two fresh acolytes came forward and began to chant, the elf's body began to smoke. It burst into a column of deep red flames. In a few moments, the young creature was no more than a pile of ash.
The head mage knelt down by that pile and sifted through it, she cried in happiness. The knight walked to her side and she held up her prizes.
"Two drops of Fourth Blood." The knight took the deep blue drops in the shape of tear gems. "That bitch must have been pregnant." The mage smiled, "We can make a High Mage with this, perhaps, even a Grand Mage." She took the larger one and placed it into her pouch, handing the smaller of the blue blood gems to the lord knight, "This is at least sixty years' worth of extra life. A gift from the Mages to the king."
The knight walked over, "The king will be pleased." He looked at the mages, "When we get to base camp, I'll make sure your acolytes get the energy stones you need to replenish your powers." The Head Mage nodded, and they left.
"Back to base camp!" The knight ordered his men, they all turned and left, except one.
Ithos Riggans waited until everyone had left before walking over to the piles of ash. Quietly he dug a small hole for each and buried the dead.
He turned to the ashes of the elven woman and unborn babe, with a sigh, he dug a hole for them as well, and placed them into the earth, "May Queen Tatiana and her Consort watch over ye spirit, and guide ye to the great beyond. May ye be reborn again in the lost land of the Fae and Folk." A spark of green shot from his fingers, and grass grew over the tiny grave. A sapling slowly grew out of the ground.
Cybelline raised an eyebrow as she watched the plain old soldier hobble away.
Comments (0)
See all