Silvermoon. A Tale of a Young Werewolf. A YA Novel. 12-18 (24 page)

She reached the top of the stairway and peered around the throne. She saw Yvette and the werewolves standing by the entrance. Monster bodies lay everywhere. She stumbled through the gore and called out to Yvette, “Yvette, where is Jason? He has the rune stone but he has hurt himself.”

The crowd of werewolves made way for her and Yvette smiled as she neared her. “He’s out there, look.”

Seawan called out to his men as he saw the harpies spread their wings while still on the ground, hopping around, “Soon, they will attack, I have been told they are hard to kill, but nevertheless we must try, for the safety of the world depends on us today. Wait until they are in close range, and then take aim carefully, they are armoured with chitin, but there will be chinks.”

Silvern said, “I believe we should try fire-arrows, they might not be…”

Her voice trailed off as the soldiers around them spoke to one another, pointing across the valley, one called out to him. “Lord Seawan, what magic is that?”

He followed the pointed finger and saw Jason, standing naked outside the cavern entrance with a horde of werewolves behind him. His arm was raised on high and something shone brightly from his hand.

He gasped as a beam of light flashed out as one of the harpies rose up, its wings beating mightily, the creature, as soon as the light touched it, vanished in a cloud of dust. The other harpies rose as one and headed towards the elven army, but the beam of light reached out to them and one by one they
too
turned to dust.

He looked across
the distance
at Jason now joined by Jennifer; he heard his voice
call out
as he held up the rune stone, still glowing, and could hardly believe his ears as he heard the following, “Goblins, the werewolf traitor Lucas is dead. You see I have the power to destroy each and every one of you. Earlier you mined for silver, why not return to this honourable trade and work with the dwarves
as you used to. Can we not live
in peace?”

There rose a great mumbling sound as the goblin horde, spoke amongst themselves. It all stopped as a female voice rang out. A female goblin in human form, her body now naked as her armour - too large for her shrunken form - fell away from her. She threw down her battle axe and called out, “I am Princess Raylin. I am the leader of my people. You talk of peace, but we are cursed.”

Jason descended the path leading to the camp, he held up his other hand and the werewolves behind him remained where they were. He called out. “What do you mean, you were cursed?”

“We were elves once, born in the northern lands of Asgard, or didn’t you know that?”

“No, I did not.”

“A curse was laid upon us by the long-dead witch Ragniss after my people refused to build her a throne out of pure gold. If you can change us back to the elves we once were, we would abide by any terms of peace you propose.”

Jason descended farther down the path and approached her. “Where can we talk,” he asked.

She indicated a large tent at the bottom of the hill, “In there.”

He followed her down the pathway, two naked figures amongst a horde of nervous goblin warriors.

They arrived at the tent and a guard pulled back the flap and they went inside.

She tossed him a cloak and proceeded to dress. He slipped the cloak over his shoulders and said, “Your face is familiar, and your scent.”

She laced up her boots and rose up from the stool on which she had sat. “Yes, that was me at the station; I noticed your reaction as I moved upwind of you. You saw me in the woods; your sister did too, when I was giving Jorgul, my brother, his instructions.”

He shook his head at this. “So John, er, Jorgul was your brother.”

“Yes! A good brother, he and Reega were twins, I was the baby sister. He always looked out for me.”

He recalled how John checked the toboggans for damage before he would allow any one of them to use them. “How did all this start? I’ve just turned seventeen and I’ve been lied to, and I’ve been told the truth, so let me hear from your lips how all this goblin, werewolf and elf altercation came into being.”

She stared at him hard, her dark eyes glistened as she spoke, “My people whom you know as the goblins, were once mountain elves. They raised goats and mined for silver, and the dwarves, their mountain neighbours, mined for iron. They lived in houses made of wood in the company of dwarves and it was a peaceful co-existence.”

“What happened to destroy this peace?”

“One dark day they fell foul of the witch Ragniss when she showed them gold. After this fateful meeting this shiny yellow metal was the only thing they craved, and it changed them from hard-working beings into a crafty and devious race.  She showed them how to get gold, but not by slaving underground. She poisoned their minds telling them that only elves should possess gold, and she sent them to the lowlands, to scour the paths along the many fjords, and there they waylaid many travellers and killed them for their gold.

They also raided and plundered the houses of the rich and stored their ill-gotten gains in the mountain caves. One day, Ragniss, after seeing the amount of gold they had gathered to them, demanded that they, after building her a fine house, should build her a throne of gold. They refused and told her to leave them alone, to go back to where she came from. So she cursed them. In her bitterness she shortened their lives, she changed them physically, their legs became spindly like a spider’s, their bodies fat and their arms thick with muscle, their eyes became sensitive to sunlight and they grew
fangs and could only survive by drinking blood from cattle.
”

She paused, the memory altering her features. She took a deep breath and wiped away a tear before she continued, “Many died, and others went insane. She set their houses on fire, turned their cattle into trolls and banned them to the mountain caves telling them the sun would burn the trolls. As time passed, their mouths became deformed and they ended up speaking gibberish that only they could understand.”

She moved away from him and seated herself on a wooden bench. “Then one day, Ragniss died. Some say the dwarves, allies of the mountain elves, poisoned her for what she did to their friends. Naturally, the goblins burned her house with her in it.”

“What happened to the curse, surely that would have died with her?”

“They thought so to, but I believe the curse thrives on evil. After the witch’s death though, her spell did weaken, for the goblins found they could transform for a while into their previous shape, a painful process which they learned to control and they found, with practice, that they could change from one form to another at will for very long periods and eventually they mixed with the humans, trading with them during the day, while stealing blood from their cattle in the night.”

Then the Norsemen invaded the land and w
hen they learned of their
evil ways they sought them out with the aid of the werewolves from the wild lands in the east
they forced my
people to leave their homeland.”

“How did they finish up here?”

“The Norsemen gave them many ships and provisions and sent them on their way. Luckily, before their food and water ran out they landed in northern
Britain
. There they settled on farmland and raised cattle, but to their dismay their cattle changed into trolls in the night once more, and those trolls unlucky enough to be caught out in the sunlight, perished. They were forced to fish from the sea in the ships given to them, something they feared to do, as Ragniss had taken away their ability to swim.

In their time, they saw the Romans come and go. Later the Norsemen came
once more
, and they fled and hid underground, fearing the werewolves as they prowled throughout the night.
One night a goblin saw a werewolf transform into a man and dress in Norsemen armour.

It was then they realized that the Norsemen themselves were the werewolves.
As the years passed, they saw armies march across the land, they saw battles, and they hid from the roaring guns in their mountain caves. The werewolves disappeared, and they remained there and carried on mining for iron with which they traded.

One winter’s day, they travelled south and settled there as sheep farmers
. They traded with elves who ca
me overseas from the eastern lands.
But then something happened when trading with the elves. The old greed returned when they saw the elves golden ornaments and they demanded gold for their wool. The elves refused to pay and traded with the humans. After which followed arguments over land rights, these altercations led to war, in which both sides fought fiercely in the disputed woods and forests, then Helga arrived with a family of river elves from the south, she brought with her the werewolves and they defeated the goblins in one great battle in the hills.

After that the few survivors hid in the hills and prospered. We stayed out of sight and learned to live as humans, then one day Lucas turned up, offering us immortality. Everyone believed him expect me and Jorgul.”

“What was Jorgul’s purpose at the college? We thought he was human. When
Jennifer arrived she kept her suspicions to herself
as he was my closest friend. She had her doubts about him, and told me when we were searching for the rune stone, and I wasn’t totally convinced until I saw him, or what I took to be him, with Reega. I recognised him by his clothing, and his goblin face did bear a slight resemblance to my friend of five years.”

“His job was to befriend you and your sister, to observe and report and stay with you at all times.”

His forehead creased. “I don’t understand. What was he to achieve by this, er, friendly deception?”

“Allow me to explain. Lucas persuaded my father to steal the rune stone. I was against it and so was Jorgul - I did not trust Lucas and you have found out why. My father sent Reega to steal the stone, this she did, but her troll was killed.”

“And Jorgul?”

“We goblins knew of your existence, of your meeting with an elven maiden. There is a prophecy stating that one day a werewolf will unite with a female elf and bring about peace and prosperity after rescuing the rune stone from destruction. Lucas told my father that it was a lie, as werewolves and elves could not mate.”

He stared at her, open-mouthed, after seconds passed he said, “You knew about me and Jennifer?”

She smiled and said, “Of course, we have our spies everywhere.”

His mouth fell open once more and he said, “The shoe shop assistant, and the smelly youth at the fair, they were goblins?”

“Yes, some of our many spies amongst the humans, the shop assistant saw you both as you hovered above the floor, not so much that everyone would notice, but he did. He also overheard the conversation between you and your mother, so we put two and two together.”

“Where did Jorgul fit into all this?”

“My father confided in me, he repeated what Lucas told him, the whereabouts of the rune stone and the names of the keepers, the Townsend family. I knew Jennifer would try to retrieve the rune stone if Reega stole it, and she would not try to without you, as you and she were bound by fate. I knew you would seek the help of the werewolves, and Jorgul saw the opportunity to intercept Reega and take the rune stone from her, he and I were going to use it to bargain with.”

“Bargain for what?”

“Peace and a better future.”

She raised her arms and turned full circle, displaying herself in her black uniform. He remembered it was the same one she wore that day at the station.

Her voice rang out, “You see me now as we once were. I believe the curse cast upon us by the witch Ragniss is fading, and that one day, in time, we will change back to what we were before. I told my family of this and they disagreed, all except Jorgul. As it happens, you and I are at the point were I would have been demanding what you are now offering if things had gone our way.” She paused then said quietly, “And the battle on the lake might never have happened.”