El-Vador's Travels (60 page)

'So
I have been told.'

'So,
perhaps now you will listen. Do not underestimate Salvarius, it is
not the same human that you once knew.'

El-Vador
nodded. 'I do not plan to.'

'Good,'
the voice replied, lowering its volume somewhat. 'Continue with your
task, I do not see any sense in prolonging this discussion.'

He
shrugged in response and felt it leaving him.

So
the voice was not aware of the mistress that the Orc had spoken of,
nor did it realise that this woman in cohorts with Salvarius planned
to use the Pixie to power the artefact somehow.

This
told El-Vador two things: Anacletus was not revealing all his
information to his invisible allies, which in itself was not all that
surprising. It also suggested that the voice itself was not
omniscient.

Which
in turn suggested that whatever it was that had infected his head
could eventually be purged.

El-Vador
smiled.

I
have been prone to startling revelations in my youth, largely because
of the lack of experience that forced me to question all that I came
into contact with. Now the wheels ever turn and everything seen is
but a cocktail of the memories I have witnessed before.

A
liana
abandoned the fire and crept over to where El-Vador lay. She could
tell from the pattern of his breathing that he wasn't asleep, she had
heard enough of his unconsciousness to be sure of that. The Elf sat
with his back to the fire, weapons nearby and a hand on the hilt of
his sword, she had no doubt that he knew she was approaching. Yet
even as she drew closer he refused to acknowledge her presence. He
strangely mirrored Anacletus as he sat in repose, and she doubted
that telling him of the resemblance would do any good.

She
coughed slightly, wary of tapping him on the shoulder. 'May I join
you?'

He
looked up, the light in his eyes reflecting the still-warm embers of
the fire. His gaze raked her up and down before he grunted in
reluctant assent. 'I see that you are still awake.'

Aliana
waited for more, but he'd returned his attention to the black
horizon. She swallowed hard, then looked at him. 'El-Vador, we need
to talk.'

The
Elf glanced back up at her, his face an unreadable mask. He'd clearly
rather be staring out at the horizon and resting for battles to come
than chatting with her. He drew in a deep breath, as if realising
that there was no avoiding it, then nodded. 'If we must.'

'Anacletus
spoke to me, told me of who he was, how he knew you and what he had
done to me. He also told me why he did it and his concerns about my
falling into the hands of this Salvarius person.'

El-Vador
nodded silently, he had clearly suspected that she'd be up to speed.

'He
was nowhere to be seen when the urge descended, nor did he appear
when the Orcs followed me into the barrens.' Aliana frowned. 'Don't
you think if he really wanted me guarded that he'd do a better job of
it?'

El-Vador
stared back at the hooded form of Anacletus beyond the remnants of
the fire before answering. 'He is extremely efficient at what he
does, but I do not know how much of it he does. Perhaps your escape
was negligence on his part due to other issues, perhaps it was
intentional. We can only speculate.'

'You
don't trust him.'

'Even
less than you do. He is not to be trusted, his motivations are
entirely self-involved. He guards us only because he has to, not out
of any desire for our well-being.'

Aliana
sighed. 'And you are not entirely self-involved also? Am I not as
well for wanting nothing else but my release from this drawing
feeling?'

El-Vador
shrugged. 'You do not plan to dispose of me as soon as my usefulness
has passed.'

'You
will go right back to killing Orcs when this is over.' Aliana
replied, still looking directly at him. 'I ask you again, is that
really all you care for?'

The
Elf closed his eyes, his fist tightening around the pommel of his
sword. 'Do you ask this or is it what Anacletus has told you to say?'

Aliana
hugged her arms around her body. 'That man has put no words in my
mouth, I simply want to know if I am dealing with one cold-blooded
killer or two.'

'You
are the only thing left from my past that hasn't tried to kill me.'
El-Vador replied, releasing the sword and staring up at her again. 'I
have wandered for many miles, this land is huge, yet here we are once
again. Drawn together through circumstances beyond our control.'

She
shivered involuntarily in the cold. 'Do you believe in fate, El-Vador
of the mountains?'

The
Elf's eyes sharpened. 'My destiny is my own to forge. I don't like
the idea of greater powers controlling me.'

No,
the man with the voice in his head wouldn't, Aliana thought to
herself. 'I have been taught that fate roots itself upon the world in
places untouched by normal sight. The elders of my tribe claimed that
there are those who make their own path simply by stumbling upon that
which fate decreed. Their life is in the journey, not whether it was
pre-mandated or not. Perhaps the journey you walk is destined simply
because of your actions, rather than doomed irrespective of them.'

The
silence reigned for a time before the Elf spoke. 'I must be who I
must be. Fate or not, mandated or otherwise, I have placed it upon
myself to become this.'

She
smiled. 'You speak as if you are the only one left. Of your kind, of
the Brotherhood. Do you forget so easily that I have witnessed both
destructions and survived as well?' She reached out to him then,
tentatively placing a hand upon his shoulder. He bristled at the
touch, but did not shrug it off. 'You are not alone so long as I
live. When you have done what you must do, there will be more to come
after.'

The
Elf nodded, either unwilling or incapable of contesting what had just
been said. In the half-light El-Vador became something more than she
had seen before. A play of emotions touched over his brooding
features that spoke of silent conflicts within. He had actually
listened to what she had said, and was considering it.

'After
Salvarius dies by my hand, after the last Orc is ended and I return
from the ruins of Sarvacts' fortress for the final time. After all
that is done, then I shall think of what is to come.'

She
nodded. 'That is all that can be asked of you. There is enough for
you to do already that you need not concern yourself with what is to
come. For all we know your attempts on Salvarius may fail, and the
remnants of the Brotherhood may wash out over the land and end us
both.'

El-Vador
shuddered. 'I will not allow that.'

'I
know.' she said faintly, feeling the warmth of his shoulder upon her
palm. He still hadn't removed her hand.

'What
more is there to you in life beyond this?

She
smiled. 'New sights and sounds, the unexplored places of this world
and the equally unexpected companions. Every new experience
broadening my understanding and causing something to grow within me.'

'You
see the world very differently.' El-Vador replied, shifting his sword
onto his lap. 'All my travels have been a means to an end, fraught
with danger and despair. All I have seen from the world is cold
indifference or outright hostility. All that is left to do is meet it
with my own disdain.'

Her
hand faltered and his expression froze.

'Is
all this world simply a place to be conquered to you?'

'No.'
he glanced down, hesitating. 'Not all of it has been.'

'Then
why can't you see that there is more to life now than your vengeance?
Why must it all happen after that is sated?'

The
Elf looked up at her coldly, shrugging off her hand. 'None of it
matters until I finish what I have started. I cannot have this until
my task is complete.'

The
vehemence of his words, and the way he deliberately shrugged her off
with such heartlessness, shocked her. Aliana took a half step back,
raising her hands, using the heartbeat this afforded her to recover
herself. 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that.'

'You
need to go.'

'El-Vador,
you need to understand.'

He
looked up but said nothing.

'You
think that you are the only one left of your kind. I came from the
mountains too, El-Vador. The very same mountains. Tell me, have you
ever seen a Pixie in the mountains?'

He
looked up at her tear-stained face and froze.

'No,
you haven't. There were so few of us left, even before the Orcs came.
When you first met me I was being hunted down. All of us were. I'm
left in the same position as you are in that I don't know if there
are any of us left. The difference between me and you is that I went
back and searched. I searched for days in the dead of winter and
found nothing.'

His
eyes were still frozen in that state of shock, but in the pause his
lips finally moved. 'I'm sorry.'

'You
need to go.' Aliana replied, mocking the sullen tone the Elf had
thrown at her. 'You are a terrible weight to drag through the air,
but it had to be done. I have saved your life twice and cared for you
when others would have left you to die.'

El-Vador
nodded.

'You
are the last link to my past in the snowy wastes of our home. Unless
I kept you alive there would be nothing left from that place, just a
very frightened woman all alone, slowly being drawn to a fate she
cannot prevent.'

The
Elf stood, setting his sword aside and facing her. Aliana imagined,
for a moment, that he would come and take her into his arms, but he
made no further movement.

'I
have been alone for much of my life, Aliana. My father was always at
war or working hard in the woods and my mother required constant care
between her visions. I had few friends by the time the occupation
came about. After that my life was nothing but hatred for the Orcs.'

A
chill ran down Aliana's spine. Their stories were the same, almost
exactly the same. 'There were too few of us left to really be called
a community, and seclusion was the most important part of our lives.
Then the Orcs came, but where with your people they had something
tangible to possess, with my people there was nothing to be gained
save wanton slaughter.'

He
faced her, his eyes piercing her own. 'You and I have a bond. We are
linked by a chain not of our forging, but created by all that has
befallen us. Our families are dead and buried but through our
reaction it has brought us together. We have each other, and I
believe that means we are not alone.'

Aliana's
tears ceased. 'I'm glad that I found you, El-Vador of the mountains.'

'The
feeling is mutual, Aliana also of the mountains.' El-Vador gave her a
half smile. 'But there is much yet for us both to do.'

'Yes.'
Aliana reached a hand toward him, then let it drop. 'There will be a
time to come.'

'A
time to come.'

'Do
what you must do, El-Vador. That time can wait.'

'I
believe you when you say that.' El-Vador replied. 'Just stay safe,
the world is a dangerous place.'

'I
have seen enough of it to know that is true.' Aliana glanced down,
hiding a smile. 'I just hope that when our tasks are done that it
will be a better one for both of us.'

Promises.
What use are promises to one such as I? All I have are these frail
nothings that promise the world around me without ever knowing just
how vast the implications of their words are.

T
he
Elf came instantly awake and reached for his sword. It had not been a
loud sound, but it had been out of place with the rest aural sphere
of the barrens. He slid into a ready crouch and scanned the area for
any intruders, igniting his sight in the pre-morning gloom.

Anacletus
had risen, standing over Aliana's prostate form and staring into the
dark as if trying to discern the same thing.

A
seething mass of dark forms swarmed toward them, almost
indistinguishable from the night itself. It was almost as if the
horizon itself had come alive and was attacking their fragile camp.
They were vaguely human in form, sporting pointed edges for weaponry
that El-Vador had no doubt would impale him upon impact as well as
any steel.

He
leapt over the remnants of the fire and stood with his back to
Anacletus, both of them protecting Aliana who still did not rise.

He
struck out with his blade and cleaved one creature in half with the
slash, sending it to the floor in a pool of darkness from which it
did not rise. He caught another in the back as it went for Anacletus,
who was peppering his foes with a barrage of smoke and daggers.

From
the shadows rose even more of the forms, rushing toward him and
reaching out with their oddly-shaped appendages. El-Vador dodged
left, letting the blade in his right hand trail. The edge scored a
line through the shadow, but it spun away before he could shift his
wrist and make the slice fatal.

He
noticed that Anacletus had been drawn away from his back by several
attackers and now he found the same divide and conquer strategy being
used against him.

His
foes danced around the embers of the fire, just out of reach from his
blade and taunting him with multiple darts toward him, each of them
potentially fatal.

A
shadow lunged. El-Vador twisted, spinning inside its thrust and
risking exposure to the others congregating for the kill. He sank his
blade into the side of the thing and found himself hurled away by the
force of its reaction, saving him from a number of stabbing blows
from its compatriots.

He
sprang upright and twisted, avoiding another stab from the darkness
and kicking it clear of him with his boot. As if learning the move
from his actions, two more shadows landed kicks upon El-Vador's leg
and sent him tumbling to the dusty floor of the barrens once more.