The Elf King (2 page)

Tane raced through the
doorway and instantly hit the floor. He rose quickly, standing in
debris. “Mother!”

Qenn fumbled through his
pack and produced a small lantern. Within seconds, Qenn raised the
light out before him and entered the house.

“
Mother!” Tane’s voice
thundered.

With shadows dancing from
the sway of the lantern, the brothers fell ill. Broken glass and
busted wood littered the floor. Clothing was strewn everywhere,
shredded into rags. Pools of dark liquid lay underneath and against
the remains of their belongings. Their home was torn apart from
wall to wall.

“
Mother!” cried Tane this
time, clutching his broadsword tight as no response
came.

Qenn hung the lantern from
a ceiling hook and joined his brother as they searched through the
remains. Tossing things this way and that, their hands became
slippery with red liquid. Their hearts pounded with a sinking
feeling of what they were going to find.

“
Tane!” Qenn was hunched
down over the broken table. A dark form lay underneath in rubble.
“Bring the light!”

Tane snatched the lantern
and rushed into the kitchen. Qenn pulled pieces of wood off the
body. As the light lowered to the face, the brothers gasped in
horror.

“
Bryni!” Qenn cried. “What
happened to him?”

Bryni looked as if he had
been torn by a maddened animal. Gripping what remained of his
friend’s head, Qenn noticed how warm it was. Instantly he was on
his feet, daggers in hand. His thin body began shaking as his fears
began dancing in the dark before him.

“
Tane, he’s still
warm!”

Tane straightened by Qenn’s
side, knowing what it meant. They moved as one; eyes wide and
intense. Weapons ready. Pulses racing. Hearts pounding. They
stalked through the darkness, from room to room, finding only dark
splatters and broken possessions.

Through one large room and
down the hall, they stepped into the remains of their mother’s
bedroom. Tane exhaled sharply then paused. Qenn never felt his
daggers slide free from his hands.

Centered on the floor,
broken in ways that could not mend, their mother’s body lay. A dark
pool surrounded her motionless form.

Qenn tried to speak, but
couldn’t. He slowly made his way to her, kneeling beside her in
disbelief. He carefully cradled her lifeless form into his arms and
began to weep.

“
Who would’ve done this?”
Tane’s voice echoed softly. “She did not deserve...”

A floor board creaked from
the kitchen, bringing Tane to his feet instantly. His sword rose to
a striking position, his eyes peering through the darkness. Qenn
kissed his mother’s forehead, then wearily rose. His teary eyes
focused as he picked up his fallen daggers. Whatever had done this
to his mother and friend was still lurking in the house.

Carefully the two brothers
moved from their mother’s side and into the hall. Chills danced
across Qenn’s pale skin as he stepped over broken beams, moving
into the opened area. Once there, they turned for the
kitchen.

Then Tane
stopped.

Standing in the middle of
the room, Tane peered into the dark kitchen. The lantern was out. A
cold chill swept over him. His senses screamed that something was
there, telling him to flee immediately. He could feel another
presence—dark and terrible, hiding in the shadows. He swallowed
hard, gripped his sword tight and waited for something to
move.

Qenn stood at Tane’s side,
his strong Elven senses warning him as well. His eyes scanned the
darkness, searching into the room far deeper than his brother. His
mouth was open as he breathed slowly, trying to remain quiet,
trying to hear through the awful silence.

Then he saw it.

Slouched in the corner
directly across the room, hooded in a black cloak, something
waited. A faceless cowl gleamed right at him. He found that he
couldn’t move; he couldn’t look away; he couldn’t speak. He could
feel its presence coming closer to him, drawing him in, but was
helpless against it. He noticed Tane’s body shifting as he still
searched, unaware. Qenn’s alarms were all ringing.

Run
!

The dark being remained
motionless, masked by shadow. Qenn could feel its disturbing
presence; it wasn’t human. Qenn felt as if its presence was
strangling him. He could feel the ick embracing his skin as if the
plagued air surrounding it was falling on him like a web to keep
him immobile. Then it would strike. A word echoed in his
mind:
Taker
!

Across the room, he watched
the black figure finally move—tall and menacing, dark and
forbidding, heading right for him.

The sharp ting of the
daggers hitting the wood floor broke the silence, causing Tane to
look down in question. His brother’s weapons lay at his feet, their
wielder staring intently across the room.

“
Qenn? What—?”

Suddenly shattered wood
moved ahead of them. In the darkness, something large approached.
“Qenn!”

Qenn snapped out of the
trance, gathered his thoughts, and turned to his brother. His face
was overwhelmed with panic. “
T
akers!
”

Before Tane could offer any
comment, a terrible wail rose out in front of them as the figure
stood, arms towering above. From beneath the empty cowl, two pupils
burned like dying embers.

Tane staggered and slipped
on a pool of liquid, landing next to Bryni’s corpse. He held the
other’s empty gaze for a moment, and then scrambled to his feet.
Raising his sword above his brown hair, he readied himself for an
attack.

“
Get out of here,
Qenn!”

Qenn grabbed Tane by the
arm just as his brother was about to charge. He pointed to the back
door where other dark figures were approaching.

“
There’s nothing we can do!
There’s too many!” Qenn gave Tane a jerk towards the door, but Tane
held ready for a few seconds more.

As more
Takers
entered the room, crimson eyes
held them in check. Tane could feel his life being drawn out;
the
Takers
’ power
was beyond anything he had ever seen. He turned to Qenn, pulling
him quickly to the door.

As they cleared the house,
shrill screams exploded from within. The front door shattered as
their hunters gave chase, blacker than the night around
them.

“
Run!” Qenn
cried.

Tane looked back to see a
mass of shadows spilling past the fence and into the street. He and
Qenn sped through Meadow, changing course as often as they could,
hoping to put as much distance between them and the demons
following.

“
Where do we go?” Qenn
gasped.

Keeping a drastic pace, the
brothers reached the far end of town and paused behind the water
mill. Pressing themselves into the shadows of the wood-planked
building, they searched the area for anything following. For the
moment, they were safe.

Qenn reached under his belt
and produced a small hunting knife. He frowned deeply. “Those
were
Takers
. Why
were they at the house, Tane?”

“
All I know is that we need
someplace to hide,” Tane shuddered.

“
We could go to Ruul.” Qenn
spoke quickly, desperate for a route of the town. “Or even back to
Skadar Port, if we had to.”

“
We don’t know if they’re
after us. Maybe they’ve given up.”

“
Why would they be after us
anyway?”

“
I don’t know, Qenn. Let’s
hope they’re not.”

“
We have to leave, Tane. We
have to get mom…” Qenn couldn’t finish. He knew they could not go
back to the house. Not yet.

Tane understood his
brother’s concern. Ruul was an even smaller village than Meadow and
it was open plain all the way there. Skadar Port was the only
logical choice. It was a ruthless city, overrun with outlaws and
those with no morals, but it was the only place where they could
lose their pursuers.

Screams broke the silence
from the other side of the village.
Takers
.

Tane stared into his
brother’s worried eyes. “We’ll take the woods to Skadar Port,
brother. Are you ready?”

Qenn looked down; he was
shaking and trying to hold back his tears. “I wasn’t ready for
this, Tane. She shouldn’t have died like that. Not her. And Bryni
was just waiting for us. He didn’t deserve anything like
this.”

Tane wrapped his big arms
around Qenn, squeezing his narrow frame close. “This is not our
fault, Qenn. We have no idea why they’re here. This is all a
mistake. Maybe we can find someone who can give us some answers.
But right now, there’s nothing we can do. If we don’t leave now,
they will find us.” He could feel Qenn shaking, sobbing into his
shirt. “Qenn, we must go.”

“
Tane...” Qenn cried. The
fear paralyzed him. He thought he could hear them rushing closer.
But he couldn’t move. He just wished everything was a mistake and
that he could close his eyes and when he opened them again
everything would be back to normal.

Tane grabbed his brother’s
shoulder. “Qenn!”

Qenn looked, following
Tane’s gaze. Shadows were shifting around houses on the edge of
their vision. They were coming.

“
Qenn, come on.” Tane
urged, helping Qenn from his frozen stance.

After taking a quick look
around, the brothers raced for the shelter of trees ahead of them,
disappearing into the dark.

Chapter
2

I
n the early morning hours of the
day, far to the south and east of the Lyyn Forest, separated by the
vast plains of the grassy Shyl, and crested at the foothills of the
Caltar Mountains, Turyn Andelline was far ready to adjourn the
meeting with his council of advisors. In a chamber sparsely lit
with lanterns casting dark shadows across angry faces, five men
seated the wooden table high in the castle’s uppermost level
discussing the day’s peace talks. Among them were Lon Ruell, First
Captain of Bowmen, and Ern Dwull, army commander, seated next to
the King, addressing him of the army and the territory they would
most likely be battling in should the peace talks fail. Expressing
great concern against the direction the meeting was taking, Wilt
Oan voiced a strong debate, but to no avail. Being the King’s
advisor in relations with the Races, Wilt tried to force the issue
of peace, but it seemed certain that it fell on deaf
ears.

“
My Lord, send scouts to
other regions. Make sure—”

The King cut off Oan
immediately. “Scouts have been sent as you know. That is how we
were informed of the Elves participation. I see no reason to waste
more time looking elsewhere. If my son is to be found, then Lord
Estrial will have a say in it.”

Wilt Oan didn’t bother
masking his displeasure. He ran his thick fingers from his
snow-white beard across his bushy eyebrows and through his short
pale hair with an audible groan. Shaking his head, he stared to the
floor between his legs.

“
My men are ready, my Lord.
We await your command.” Commander Ern Dwull affirmed, sitting back
in his chair and stroking his black beard. He wore a black hunting
outfit and his dark, shoulder-length hair was tied behind his ears.
He was a veteran soldier-made-commander of the King’s army, and
like the rest of the council this night, he was focusing on the
beginning of a war.

“
My men are not afraid of
their magic, my Lord,” he finished. His arms folded into his chest
and he stared down the long wooden table to where King Andelline
sat waiting.

Wilt pounded a fist into
the old wood slab. “Because you underestimate it! Arrows and swords
will not be enough! You will not win a war against the Forest
Elves.”

“
Choose your side now, old
man!” Ern Dwull bickered back, growing frustrated.

Lon Ruell rose to his feet
at the King’s side, standing tall, commanding their attention.
“Enough. It is pointless to argue this matter. Our information
confirms our suspicions and if the peace talks fail, then we will
have no choice in this matter.” His voice was calm as he spoke, but
there was no mistaking the serious nature. “Oan, I appreciate your
efforts here, but we need to be prepared for the worst, and I think
we have done so.”