The Elf King (6 page)

T
ane
stepped through a tangle of brush
and saplings, making his way towards a bush that grew red berries,
not wandering out of shouting distance from his sibling. As he
reached the bush, he picked a handful of berries and tasted them
hastily.

Sour!

Instantly he exploded in
rage, striking at the bush with his sword. His teeth clenched
tight, his dark eyes narrowed, filled with hatred. His skin twisted
and contorted as his emotions finally got the best of him and he
could no longer keep his pain bottled up. Striking and hacking at
the bush, using wide arching swings, slicing through the leafy
branches as if they were nothing, Tane escaped within his thoughts,
back to the house where he was battling the
Takers
. For several long minutes he
swung his sword, as fast as he could, as hard as he could muster,
until his sword was cutting only air. He stopped then, realizing
what he had done, and looked at the mulch of a bush before
him.

Breathing hard, Tane felt
exhausted. He sheathed his weapon once more at his side and wiped
the tears he couldn’t hold back. It had been a long time since he
had cried. And since then he had carefully constructed walls so he
wouldn’t be hurt again. Until now.

He closed his eyes briefly
and said his goodbye to his mother.

After a few moments, he
gathered his composure, straightened his broad frame, and began
searching for food.

S
lumped
against a tree, Qenn was
falling asleep when a hand firmly grasped his shoulder. His head
looked up immediately to see what he thought would be a monster
cloaked in black, but it was more a reflection looking back. “I
can’t stop thinking that if we never would have left, then none of
this would have happened. She would be safe still. She’d be
alive.”

With a face nearly as
ragged as Qenn’s, Tane looked down and dropped the fruit he
carried. “It’s not your fault, brother. Look at me.”

Qenn did as he was asked,
his face nothing more than one tear smeared from ear to ear, from
forehead to chin. “Tane... I can’t accept it.”

“
Listen to me, Qenn. I have
no idea what happened, or why they attacked her, but I do know
this: it’s not our fault. Don’t do this to yourself, Qenn.” His
voice stayed firm, but comforting. He wanted to make sure that his
brother knew he would be safe. He hugged Qenn tight again, and this
time he felt the other do it back. “Focus on getting to the Krune,
then Skadar Port. We might be able to find some answers there, and
that’s the best we can hope for now.”

“
I know.”

“
Someday we’ll go back and
this mess will be forgotten.” Even as Tane said it, he didn’t
believe it. None of it would be forgotten. He was merely trying to
comfort Qenn. “We should try to rest now, then move again when the
sun sets.”

Qenn nodded. “You want to
sleep?”

“
No. I’ll take first watch.
I’ll set some traps around the perimeter, so if anything approaches
we’ll know it before they know we’re here. Get some
sleep.”

Tane watched Qenn stretch
himself along the base of the tree, using his cloak for a pillow,
looking up at him.

“
I’m glad you’re with me,
Tane.” Seconds later, his eyes shut and he was asleep.

Tane stared at his brother
for a second longer then walked away. So much had happened in so
small amount of time, he thought. He realized then that he had a
headache and began feeling dizzy. He walked a few paces and settled
down against an old tree where he could see anything approaching
directly. Anything that would sneak up on him would have to pass
through several picker bushes without sound, an unlikely scenario,
so he felt comfortable at the moment.

As he kept his gaze mostly
on his sleeping brother, his mind stayed on their situation. Skadar
Port was an outlaw’s town, run by thieves and worse, where there
was no law, or more perhaps there was no one who cared to abide by
it. It was a rough town and outsiders were seldom left to their
business. If they found any help there at all, it would be a
miracle.

And help for what? He
didn’t even know what kind of help they would look for. Surely they
would attempt to find out why
Takers
were in Meadow and why they
would seek out their mother. But the odds of someone being able to
tell them, were almost non-existent at best. And someone who did
know the answer to that, might be a person they would rather not be
asking in the first place.

Tane began to eat a few of
the tart berries from the bushes next to him, watching his brother
roll onto his side.
Are they tracking us?
Why would they? What if there’s no help in Skadar Port? Where would
they go then?
He couldn’t continue the
thought. He knew already that he did not have the
answers.

As he swallowed hard,
regretting his decision to eat the sour berries, feeling his
stomach churn in unpleasantness, he decided he had better come up
with a plan. Soon.

But before he could do
anything more, dizziness flooded over him, far too quick for any
reaction other than crumbling to his stomach. As his vision spun
violently, darkness washed over him.

Q
enn
was in
darkness as well, his dreams growing more unpleasant by the
second. He was running through Meadow, lost, trying to find his
mother and Tane. All around him he could hear them screaming to him
for help, but they were nowhere to be found. And the feel of
something evil was reaching out for him at every turn.

He bolted from behind the
water mill, running alongside of the adjacent building, staying in
the deep shadows. Nightfall enclosed him with an empty sky
overhead. Breathing hard, he stopped as he neared the corner,
entering the main town street. Carefully, he eased his sweaty face
around the wall to see. There she was, in the middle of the street,
hands tied, mouth gagged, sitting on her knees. Her head was
lowering slowly, as if her strength had expired.

Mother
!

As he left his place of
concealment, shadows collapsed all around her. A sea of red eyes
burned fire and he was forced to slow, the heat and the brightness
were too much for him to bear. All the while his mother screamed
for him to save her.

No!

Qenn awoke with a jolt. His
body was covered in sweat. The sun had gone down and the woods were
dark. The air about them was cool and filled with the sounds of
insects and night birds. As his dream faded, and his senses came
back, Qenn noticed Tane’s body stretched out a few feet
away.

“
Tane,” Qenn yawned, “how
long have I been out?”

Qenn stretched, rose, then
stretched again feeling hungry. He looked down to his brother
again, whose body he noticed was jerking. “Tane?”

Qenn quickly bent down,
looking around the trees for anything out of the ordinary,
uncertain what had happened while he slept. As he placed his hands
on his brother, he felt his body trembling. He rolled Tane onto his
side, gasping at the other’s pale face. Something was terribly
wrong.

“
Tane!”

Qenn produced the water
pouch and tried to make his brother drink, but Tane wouldn’t. His
eyes were lazily flashing open, allowing Qenn time enough to notice
that his pupils looked glazed. His pulse was thready, and beads of
sweat lined his forehead.

“
Tane, what
happened?”

Tane opened his eyes with
faint recognition. His lips parted as though he was going to speak,
but he got sick instead.

Qenn sat his brother up in
the grass, crouching behind him. He noticed the small berries
squeezed in Tane’s hand. It had been the only thing he had eaten in
almost a day. Gently, he eased Tane down on his side into the
grass, reaching into the pouch at his belt. He produced a dark
yellow liquid and began to dip traces of it along Tane’s lips,
softly placing some on his tongue. Instantly Tane’s body began to
heave and convulse. Qenn struggled to keep him down, his own body
strength far lesser than his brother’s, but managed until Tane
relaxed. After a few moments, the color reappeared in his face and
hands, and his eyes opened.

Qenn smiled. “Thanks for
not sharing.”

Tane sat upright with a
deep frown. He quickly wiped his mouth and drank water to refresh
his taste buds, spitting in disgust. “What happened? I feel
awful.”

“
I would say that your
harvesting skills are dwindling,” Qenn laughed. He showed a handful
of berries to Tane. “This was your choice of poison.”

“
I guess my mind was
preoccupied.” Tane shook his head at his own actions. “I’ve been
doing a lot of thinking about what’s going to happen in the next
few days. To tell you the truth, I have no idea.”

Qenn said nothing. He
didn’t want to put their whole situation on Tane’s shoulders, and
he knew that’s how his brother felt. He was always leading; being
the oldest, he probably saw it as his job. But Qenn didn’t need
someone to take care of him. Whatever they were going to do, they
would act together.

“
We need to keep moving.”
Qenn wanted to show his brother that he too could take charge,
share the burden. He rose to his feet, helping Tane to do the same.
“We’ll walk the night and rest at day break. We’ll find some food
on the way.”

Tane smiled. With a pat to
Qenn’s shoulder, he replied, “Sounds good. I’ll leave the foraging
to you though.”

Midnight found Tane and
Qenn navigating by the star positions, stumbling over fallen logs
that were too dark or too small to see in the sparse light. They
came across a carriage trail, an old one, seldom used, covered in
grass with the wheel paths appearing to be bare, save for a few
animal tracks, and graciously began to follow. With a trail set
before them, they began to make ground quicker.

It had been a few hours and
neither had said much. Their thoughts were drifting in and out of
Meadow and Skadar Port, of the life they had been used to, and the
one they were going to have now. Questions lingered without
conclusion, running their minds until they were simply too tired to
think any longer. Their bodies were beginning to sag, their steps
slower and shorter. Food was part of their problem, or the lack
thereof rather. Sleep was the other. It seemed to their bodies that
a fight was taking place to see which they could put off the
longest.

Finally after several hours
of no food or rest, Qenn came to an abrupt halt, staring into the
woods off to his side. Tane stopped next to him, his right hand
coming to rest on the pommel of his sword, his eyes squinting in
the darkness for anything moving.

Qenn smiled. “It’s okay.
I’ve found something.”

Qenn moved off the trail
and into the woods. Tane heard a rustling of branches, then a
sharp
snap
.
Seconds later Qenn was returning to his side, holding a long, odd
looking leaf. He broke the stem in half and gave it to Tane, then
began to chew on his piece. Tane stared quizzically for a moment,
and then did the same.

“
It’s a Lilk leaf.” Qenn
watched Tane smile. “It’ll give us energy.”

Tane found the leaf to be
filling and refreshing. “How did you know of this?”

Qenn finished his piece and
winked. “I’m an elf. We know things.”

Tane smirked. “My Elven
senses are not as sharp as yours, Qenn. If I were
you...”

He stopped abruptly, his
face quickly changing as he looked past Qenn, down the trail they
had followed. His right hand rested on the pommel of his sword, his
expression turning angry. Moving off the trail, he motioned for
Qenn to follow.

Qenn listened intently. His
vision was highly keen without light, but his hearing was even
more-so. Minutes passed but he heard nothing. He looked to Tane
with a shrug. As he slowly began to rise, Tane grabbed his arm and
yanked him down, pointing into the darkness.

“
Sh. It’s coming up the
trail.” Tane’s words were hushed, filled with fear as he began
breathing faster.

Qenn saw it then, something
huge coming down the trail, materializing out of the darkness. He
began to tremble.
Takers
, he thought. They found them.
He crouched down even lower, seeking to hide from the madness
coming towards them.

Tane noticed Qenn’s
condition and gently placed a hand upon his brother’s arm, watching
him jump in response. “Don’t be scared,” he whispered. “Wait for my
lead.”

Qenn nodded. Together they
sat unnoticed in the darkness watching the object approach. They
could hear each others breathing; they could almost feel the
other’s anticipation. The woods went silent. The night seemed to
hide within its own shadow.

Within a few minutes, the
object took shape: it was a wagon-carriage with one horse and two
riders. Muffled voices spoke, but the conversation was unclear.
Almost instantly though, it was ruled out that
Takers
were coming. Qenn felt his
nerves settle.