Miras Last (22 page)

The bridge that connected the mainland to
Blackwell island was extraordinarily wide, roughly twenty elves
could walk side by side across it and made entirely from the dark
stone that was the predominate feature of this land. The bridge
presented a couple of problems itself. The first issue that came to
her mind was the fact that it was made from intunerics. Walking on
those for even a short amount of time, could do a number on the
elves and one Galena didn’t feel they could handle just before
battle. Sure, the elves were used to handling intunerics,
especially when they started work in the mines, but being
surrounded by this many was not a good thing.

The second issue Galena saw was even though
the bridge was relatively wide; it still limited them like a funnel
to the island. The enemy would wait at the other end and pick them
off as they came across and tried to step on the island. Finishing
her bread and starting on her apple, Galena brought up her issues
with Tark and found he had been considering the very same things.
He, like her, was unsure exactly what to do.

“Galena, why don’t you cover the bridge in
light?” Morgo asked, having listened intently to their concerns.
Galena looked at Morgo, not really surprised, because he had so
many good ideas.

“That could work,” she replied slowly.

“It may not block all of the dark magic, but
it will certainly ease it considerably.”

“But there is still the problem of getting
all the elves onto the island through a sort of filter,” Tark said,
looking back at the island again.

“That’s a little tougher to negotiate,” Morgo
said thoughtfully.

“What if we do like we did when we first came
out of camp?” Elenio asked.

“That would definitely get them to move back
a bit,” Morgo said scratching his head as he thought about it.

“Unless they’re expecting it,” Tark
responded.

“That could very well be true, too,” Morgo
agreed, kicking a small pebble aside.

“Well, then we’ll have to improvise,” Galena
said, throwing the apple core behind her. She heard a thump
followed by an “ow.” Guiltily, she turned around to see whom she
had nailed and saw Morak walking toward them, rubbing his head in
an annoyed fashion.

“Nice. Survive another battle, but get taken
out by an apple core. Just how I wanted to end my fighting
career.”

Galena grinned sheepishly at him, feeling the
heat rise up in her face.

“We lost a couple of elves and the ones that
were injured are returning. The underground healers have done all
they can today. In fact, most of them are out cold,” Morak
reported, still rubbing his head gingerly.

Galena looked down at the ground. This was
the first time they had actually lost elves in battle. She looked
ahead and knew there would be more before the day was out. She felt
the weight of those lives heavy on her shoulder, but knew there was
nothing she could do about it. They had all put their lives at
stake, knowing the risks before they had taken them, but that
didn’t help her to feel any better at that moment.

Tark too was looking at the ground, sadness
written all over his face. “Let’s not waste those lives. Galena,
are you ready?”

“Not in the slightest, but that hasn’t
stopped me yet.” She would save as many elves as possible, but most
importantly, she would show Rau what she was made of. Thinking of a
bright light, she sent it sizzling down the bridge until the entire
thing was covered in the same glow that protected their minds
before. The bridge stood waiting for them, inviting them now to end
the corruption at its other side. Tark raised a hand, gaining the
attention from all the elves around him.

“To Blackwell. Let’s finish this!” he
shouted.

Chapter
Fourteen

Galena stepped up to the very edge of the
light covered bridge and took a deep breath. The first step onto
the bridge very much felt like preparing oneself to jumping off the
edge of a cliff. She casually tossed the ires a little way into the
air before catching it in her hand once more. She looked to her
left and saw Tark, Taura, Morgo, and nine of the fighting
underground elves. To her right stood Elenio, Nina, and the
remaining ten of the fighting underground elves. They had decided
to join her at the front lines to help her with exploding the
ires.

She looked at Tark once more to which he gave
his head a brief jerk, indicating to lead on. Galena didn’t
respond, but started her journey across the bridge. Like Morgo
predicted, the light didn’t block all the dark magic, but it did
help. Galena couldn’t help feeling slightly more tired than she had
been and depressing thoughts kept creeping up on her. Visions from
Mira’s cave kept floating around in her mind, but instead of making
her want to turn back, they fed Galena’s resolve, making her stand
taller and feel more powerful. She would make sure her family and
friends stayed safe.

The bridge seemed to go on forever and with
every step, Galena’s nerves felt as if they would burst from her
skin. Looking sideways, she saw the same held true for all the
elves. Elenio’s thoughts and emotions were jumping all over the
place to the point where Galena briefly considered blocking him.
She was having enough trouble managing her own feelings at the
moment. Tark’s jaws were clenched tightly and Morgo looked more
like he had when she had first met him.

Galena could see Rau’s forces now. Just as
they had predicted, they stood blocking the exit from the bridge.
She could see hundreds of the bright, red torlics, the whip-like
fingers of the narooks snapping this way and that. earagos stood
menacingly above the rest of them, cruel smiles on their faces. She
saw hundreds more creatures that never saw the light of day until
Rau called them to war. Some had sharp spikes all over their
bodies. Some were covered in an ooze. There were creatures with
hundreds of eyes, and some with excessive amounts of limbs. Some
looked similar to the torlics, but much more menacing because they
were unfamiliar to her. All of these creatures together brought
goose bumps to Galena’s skin. These were the creatures created by
the same dark magic nightmares came from, and all were various
stages of horrible.

As the elves continued the passage across the
bridge, several new creatures pushed their way through the mass of
dark bodies to the front lines. It was the dreaded tookoos. These
creatures Rau designed himself. They were the guards of Blackwell
for a good reason. They were fashioned after Rau with the exception
of being able to manipulate shadows. They stood as tall as the
torlics. Their black bodies, blended in with the surrounding
environment, making them difficult to see if you tried to focus on
more than their outlines. They were incredibly powerful and very
able swordsman, much more so than any of the other creatures the
elves had fought against so far.

“How many of the tookoos do you bet I can
take out?” Elenio asked Tark.

“Five fewer than me,” Tark called back.

“Oh yeah, well I have six ires in my hand, so
I think I’ll have more than anyone,” Morgo joined in.

Galena rolled her eyes. Leave it to her
family to start making bets on how many they can take out before a
big battle. “I think you all need your heads examined by a healer
after this. You’ve clearly lost it,” Galena muttered.

“I second that,” Taura added.

Tark smiled crookedly.

Blackwell grew to huge proportions, blocking
everything behind it from Galena’s view. The land before it moved
and shifted with anxious movements of all of Rau’s army. It was an
intimidating sight and Galena felt rather sorry it might be her
last.
No, I mustn’t think that way,
she scolded herself
silently. The creatures at the end of the bridge were developing
more features with every step they took until they were a mere
twenty feet away. Stopping, Galena looked as menacingly as she
could manage given her stressed out nerves. The monsters didn’t
look too intimidated. Galena wasn’t sure how to feel about this, so
she settled for just not throwing up.

“Ready?” she called. The battle cry of every
elf in their army met her question. The shouts of all the elves
caused Galena to shudder, pride swelling up in her. If she were one
of the bad guys, she would feel a little nervous right about then.
This however, didn’t seemed to hold true with Rau’s army as she
heard snorts and laughter.

“ON MY SIGNAL!” Galena heard the discreet
sound of hundreds of ires getting ready to be thrown. She knew for
the elves toward the back to be able to reach the enemy with their
ires, she would have to help them out with wind. She prepared
herself to bring a gale up to accomplish that task among all the
other things she felt she would have to do.

Instead of sending up a column of light like
the ones she had in the past, she decided to get started with the
enemy confusion and shot bolts of lightning from the sky into the
biggest group of tookoos. She watched with great satisfaction as
the giant beasts were blasted off the cursed rocks that they soaked
so much dark energy from. The remaining tookoos looked a bit more
alarmed and a great deal less confident than when the elves had
first started their march across the bridge, much to Galena’s
amusement.
See, we are something to take seriously,
she
thought smugly to herself. She looked sideways at Elenio and Tark
and saw they’d noticed the tookoos reaction too, judging by the
huge grins on their faces. Galena smiled as well. With the fleeing
of the tookoos’ confidence, hers grew.

“That was fun to watch,” she heard Morgo call
out from somewhere beside her.

We really do have issues,
Galena
thought.

She saw Elenio’s grin broaden when he
registered her thoughts in his own mind. “No, I think we’ve just
finally reached our breaking point,” Elenio shouted, still grinning
mischievously.

“Are you two going to stand there and debate
our craziness all day or are we going to earn our freedom back?”
Tark joined in, tossing his ires in his hand lightly before
preparing to throw it at the enemy.

“Nope, I’m good. Let’s go,” Galena answered
back, shooting several more bolts of lightning into the black mass.
With the last bolts of energy rushing to the creatures, the elves
as one threw the ires at the shifting mass of dark creatures,
helped along by a gale of wind. The glass orbs scattered throughout
the enemy before bursting into liquid fire and spraying the
monsters with flames so hot they were blue. Creatures collided with
one another and ran screaming in pain only to meet other creatures
howling with rage and agony. The chaos they were hoping to create
filled the air as the dark creatures struggled to get back into
their position with no success.

“ATTACK!” Galena screamed for all she was
worth, feeling her throat strain with the effort. The elves ran at
top speed meeting the chaos full on and finding no resistance.
Elenio engaged a tookoo, staggering slightly from the strength of
the creature’s blows.

“By the way, I’m currently winning that
previous bet,” Galena shouted to him as she engaged several torlics
and a dark creature with black skin and beetle like eyes that
covered its entire head.

Using wind, she swept the torlics away and
far into the ocean before engaging the dark creature that moved
with incredible speed. Galena found its thousands of eyes allowed
it to see in many different directions, giving it the chance to see
things before they really got started. After attempting to cut into
it several times with her sword, Galena turned as she set the thing
ablaze.

“See that coming?” she muttered.

“I’ve got three down,” Tark shouted somewhere
behind Galena.

“I’m up to five,” Elenio called back.

Galena just shook her head before using a
blast of wind to remove several dark creatures from her path. She
needed to get to Blackwell. She had an appointment to keep. Galena
ran her blade across the backside of a charging earagos causing him
to burst into light while she spun around, spraying liquid fire
from her sword.

“That was new,” Elenio said a little
breathlessly as he came up next to her.

Galena looked at her sword appreciatively.
She really needed more time to figure out what she was capable of
with this weapon.

Tark and Taura came up beside her, engaging a
group of narooks. One of the monsters managed to wrap its long
fingers around Tark’s neck, but his victory was short lived when
Taura cut through his fingers. Galena came up beside them,
destroying two more with a single swipe. Wiping the sweat from her
brow, she looked around and saw the elves were pushing the enemy
lines back.

The sounds of battle rang all around her. She
heard grunts of elves as they swung their swords, attacking the
enemy at every turn. She heard the whistling of arrows sailing
overhead into the bodies of more dark creatures causing them to
burst into flames. Galena fought on, growing more tired with every
swing.

The castle grew larger with every fallen
enemy until Galena could clearly see the main entrance. It looked
like a large yawning maw in the middle of a monster’s head. The
thick wooden doorway was dark with age and corruption. It stood
large and imposing, threatening Galena away with the dark secrets
that it held within. It was through these doors that Galena watched
with resignation as the one she dreaded the most stepped through
and onto the landing. She stopped, staring at the creature that had
ruled them for centuries. He was no taller than Fala, the tallest
elf she ever saw. Muscles rippled through his shoulders, arms, and
chest. His legs also showed signs of great strength. Shadows
wrapped around him, swirling within his form. He was solid, but
not, almost like his outer shell was made of glass showing
everything inside. He seemed to move without really moving and the
blade at his side was twice as long and wide as the Sword of
Lumina, making it incredibly intimidating. His eyes searched the
battlegrounds all around until they landed on Galena. It was time
for her to make her last stand.