Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising (18 page)

He rubbed his head in the familiar
pain and softly said, “Thank you Nymira.”

The dragon king turned to speak to
everyone, raised his head high and spoke with a booming voice,
“Today is a day of celebration! Our queen has been returned to us,
the man of the Talonsphere prophecy stands before us and has been
empowered by the gods themselves! We are ready to continue this
war! All of you should gather your strength tonight as we will head
to Veldrenn as soon as this storm passes. It is time to show the
men and elves of Marithia that we are stronger than ever before and
victory over the Forces of Darkness is close at hand.”

Chapter 13 :
Crossroads

“
Death is a fact of life
that is feared by all mortals. Heroes hope their names echo
throughout eternity.

Will we be remembered for the things we
have done when we are gone?

Who will tell tales of our
accomplishments and sing songs of our legends?”

(Talonsphere – Weapon of the
ancients)

Anakari woke to the alluring smell of
thickleberry tea and steaming hot chicken filling the room and
looked around in confusion, forgetting for a moment that she had
slept in Crondor’s Inn. The fireplace still burned and saved her
bare skin from the chilling touch of winter.

Yuski smiled gently and approached
her.

“
I see you’ve re-joined the
world of the living. Here you are, this should help you prepare for
the day ahead,” said Yuski, handing her the tea and a plate of
chicken meat.

“
Thank you Yuski, but where
are we going today?” she asked softly, sitting up to
eat.

Anakari realised that she was
completely naked and thought back to the night before, blushing
with embarrassment. The dusty beams of sunlight caressed her body;
rubies in her necklace sparkled and lit up the roof with speckles
of light.

Yuski sat beside her and placed her
tea by the fireplace and giggled, “Your memory seems a bit lost
this morning.”

She leaned in to Anakari’s
ear and whispered, “Kari, you have
nothing
to be ashamed about. What
took place last night was completely normal. I yearned for it to
happen just as much as you did.”

She placed a soft kiss on Anakari’s
neck and looked lovingly into her eyes.

Anakari was overcome with warmth and
felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She smiled back and
sipped her tea to cool her emotions.

“
Thank you, Yuski… for
everything. I am very new, to… I don’t know how…” she began,
confused as to how to express her emotions.

Yuski placed a finger on the elf’s
full lips and said, “Shhhh. You have no need to explain. Just be
who you are and follow your heart. I’m not travelling anywhere
without you now. Unless you want me to.”

Anakari embraced Yuski in a warm hug,
holding her tightly and her voice rasped as she said, “Thank you,
Yuski. I am so lucky to have met you.”

“
And I am blessed to have
met you also, Kari. My family never believed in luck, we believe in
fate. Everything that occurs in our lives is laid out by the gods
and there is no reason why our paths cannot be combined. Demons are
scattered throughout Marithia and I am sure that I will find them
in our travels. Your quest for discovering the mystery of Daessar
has a new ally, if you will have me?” asked Yuski, batting her
eyelids and running her tongue sensually over her lips.

Anakari couldn’t help but burst out
laughing.

“
Of course I will have you,
but wait… I already did,” she laughed saucily.

Yuski joined her laughter and they
enjoyed a moment of not worrying about the world’s
problems.

“
Kari, I hope you don’t
mind my query, but I was meaning to ask about your necklace. It is
so beautiful and I am curious as to where you got it?”

“
Of course I don’t mind.
But I don’t know. Aldorus said that it has been around my neck
since birth. It’s as though it grew with me all these
years.”

Anakari lifted the unicorn head and
turned it to show Yuski the engraving of the word ‘Daessar’. Her
eyes watered as she said sadly, “This has been my only clue to my
history, family, or anything that I know about my true beginnings.
Finding out what Daessar is may give me a clue as to who I
am.”

“
That must be a very
difficult burden for you to bear. I was curious as unicorns are
said to be extinct. There is a legend that the ancients are still
alive, hiding in Marithia and they show themselves to Marithians in
the form of unicorns. Have you ever seen one?”

“
No, I haven’t. How do you
know so much about Marithian history and legends?”

“
My family has a library of
books passed down throughout the generations, including some which
you won’t find elsewhere in Marithia. I will take you to see Barone
after we eat our breakfast. He is a seer and if anyone knows about
Daessar, he will,” said Yuski, biting into a piece of
chicken.

“
I can’t wait to meet him.
How did you pay for this? In these times, it would have taken
plenty of coin?” asked Anakari, reaching for more
chicken.

“
You need not worry your
pretty face about that, hunting demons pays handsomely and gold is
not a problem for me.”

The girls finished most of their meal,
wrapping leftovers for later. Anakari quickly got dressed into
lighter clothes, charged with the excitement of their trip. She may
finally begin to get answers to the mysteries that have plagued her
for as long as she could remember.

“
I already packed extra
supplies for our trip. He does not live too far from here, but who
knows where we will end up after seeing him,” said
Yuski.

Anakari beamed as she said, “Then
let’s get on our way.”

They quietly descended the inn’s
stairs and were not surprised to see that it was deserted, with the
exception of a snoring Griff who was getting some much needed
rest.

Yuski led them out the door quietly
and whispered, “He never changes, always working too hard and
leaving little time for rest.”

Bright light shined over them and they
squinted uncontrollably as they entered the streets of Crondor. The
town bustled with activity. The people were busy but looked worried
and hurried about town. Most of them looked like travellers and
were busy buying wares from whatever stores were open.

The girls were stopped by a small boy
who stepped out from the inn stables in torn clothing; he looked
like he hadn’t eaten in days. He appeared to be about nine years of
age, and his eyes gave away that he had experienced far more than
any child should have.

The boy asked dryly through chapped
lips, “Please ma’am, could you spare a coin? Do you have some food
or water?”

Yuski pulled out her flask of water
and helped the boy drink some before placing three gold coins and
their remaining chicken in his trembling hands. The boy appeared
surprised at their unexpected kindness.

“
Thank you,” said the boy
quietly, turning away to return to the stables.

The girls followed to retrieve their
horse and were disheartened to see him on nearby hay, biting
desperately into the meat.

“
Boy, what happened to
you?” asked Yuski.

The boy sighed deeply before speaking,
“I don’t remember everything. All I know is that they took them and
they never came back.”

“
Took them? What took who?”
asked Anakari.

The boy’s bottom lip quivered as he
answered her, “Those… creatures… they took my parents. Hiding in
the shadows they were, three of them, and I remember them snatching
my parents from the campfire, we were travelling far, to see
grandmother. I could hear their screams, but my father yelled for
me to run and not to look back.”

“
I was such a coward and
all I could do was run away. I ran from midnight until morning; my
feet bled as I had left my shoes at the campfire but I didn’t stop
till I could run no more. Finally, I turned around and there was
nobody there,” continued the boy, clenching his fists in
anger.

“
How did you arrive at
Crondor?” asked Yuski.

“
I just kept walking until
I found my way here. Please, don’t tell anyone that I am hiding
here, I have nowhere else to go,” said the boy.

Yuski bent down and patted the boy’s
back reassuringly.

“
What is your name, little
one?” asked Anakari.

“
The name’s Bard, what’s
yours?”

“
I’m Yuski, demon hunter.
Tell me, do you know what direction you ran from?”

The boy pointed north in the direction
of Greenhaven. The trail leading north passes close to the forsaken
city.

Yuski looked at Anakari with grave
concern.

“
Bard, go to the inn and
wait to speak to Griff once he wakes. Give him word that I sent you
and that he is in need of a stable boy. It will be work, but he
will provide you with a room to sleep in and food to fill your
belly,” said Yuski.

The boy looked at her with both shock
and hope, before thanking her and hurrying inside.

Yuski untied Anakari’s horse and she
mounted first to help Kari climb up and sit behind her.

“
Running at his age for
that long would bring him very close to where we will find Barone,
but I’m not concerned about him. I am certain that nobody would
find the seer unless they knew where to look,” said Yuski, her
harried expression showing she was concerned about something
though.

Anakari put her hand on her shoulder
caringly and asked, “What worries you?”

“
Something tells me that
the three creatures that attacked his parents are demons,” answered
Yuski, “There are three demons that are known as the Triplets of
Orkon. Highly magical, and they prey on human souls.”

“
Why didn’t they take the
boy?”

“
They didn’t take the boy
so he could go for help and bring back more souls for them to
consume,” she answered, taking out her orb.

Anakari shrugged her shoulders and
shook her head to chase away the horrible images she’d just
conjured.

“
You know, I think there is
a lot more to our meeting and our paths crossing than either of us
are aware of. Our fates are combined somehow, I can feel it.
Anyway, they better be as I am enjoying your company more and
more,” said Yuski, smiling warmly at her new companion.

The girls made their way past a large,
open graveyard that appeared fresh and hastily dug. A handful of
mourners prayed and left flowers at the wooden crosses of their
loved ones buried recently.

“
So many are dead, not many
wounded?” asked Anakari.

“
These are times of war and
the Forces of Darkness have taken many Marithians in their fight to
enslave us all. They don’t take us alive, they take our souls. This
is why my work is more important than ever before. Every demon I
vanquish will save the souls of countless people,” said
Yuski.

Many street vendors and shop owners
approached the girls as they rode through town. Yuski’s occupation
was well-known there. They offered wares, weapons, food and flasks
of water and did not accept gold in return. They were thankful for
a demon hunter being nearby.

Yuski defiantly pressed gold coins
into the vendor’s hands and purchased some extra fruit and water.
She also obtained a pretty set of silver daggers which came with an
elaborate leather belt to hold them. Fashioning them onto her
waist, she beamed proudly at Anakari.

“
I can be pretty and kill
demons at the same time. I should change my title to Yuski… the
princess demon hunter,” she laughed, using her hands to form a
pretend crown.

Her laugh was infectious and Anakari
couldn’t help but giggle.

A woman on the street, under a crudely
constructed sign of ‘Seer of the stars’, stared at Anakari in
shock. She quickly bowed down on the dirt in her
presence.

“
She has been sent from the
gods! Praise them, they have given us one of their own to help save
us!” the woman shrieked.

The people of Crondor stared in their
direction, confused at the woman’s cries and dismissed her as a
peddler of cheap tricks.

“
Is she looking at you? She
hasn’t done anything
that
odd before,” laughed Yuski.

Anakari’s voice strained as she stared
at the woman. “I don’t know.”

“
Don’t worry about her, she
has probably gone mad. Many have from the horrible events
throughout Marithia,” said Yuski sympathetically.

The girls rode on, moving away from
the prostrate seer woman.

“
Kari, the Triplets of
Orkon were spotted on the path to Barone’s hideout. We will likely
encounter them and have to destroy them. I will need your magical
abilities to defeat them, as we will be outnumbered. Are you able
to handle the challenge?” asked Yuski.