Healer

Chapter 1

"Wait." she said, placing a hand on his chest. He looked at her, confused, and pushed against her hand, closing his eyes as he bent his mouth toward hers. She turned her head to avoid him. 

"Wait, Braxton. Do you hear that?" He stopped pushing and turned his head in the same direction as hers. 

"Shit." he said crawling back to his feet and rushing to put his boots back on his muddy feet. An alarm was sounding from the center of camp. Something was happening.

     Azriel knew how to invade. It was his job, his identity. He knew how to move silently, to stay undetected. He knew how to use his skills and his shadows to get what he needed and slink out like the night itself. But this was different. Azriel had learned of the king's movements months ago, and now his high lord wanted him to dig deeper, to infiltrate these smaller legions and come out with more real-time information. He was traveling with a band of Illyrian soldiers, they would fly in, take over the camp, round up the men, kill the rebellious ones, pick a few to.....ask some questions. Then, burn the evidence.

Prythian leaders hoped the loss of these small camps would scare Hybern back in to hiding while they worked out how to fight the coming war that they felt threatening a fragile peace that they had worked so hard for. The Illyrians had just come from another camp and he knew they had a limited time to get the job done here before they were caught. Their movements hadn't been detected yet, but he knew Hybern was watching. He landed near the edge of camp and grabbed a dark headed male by the collar as he trudged by. Drunk, no doubt. "Tell your commander to sound the alarm." Azriel whispered in his ear. The male violently shrugged free of his grip and turned to him, his face shifting from anger to shock as he took in the winged figure, and without another word he ran to the center of camp.

The other Illyrian soldiers landed silently behind their own commander, eight of them in total. He began to walk through the camp, slowly, confidently, as they waited for the ruckus around them to begin. This group was larger than the others they had seen. Maybe 30 males, based on the number of tents they counted on the flight in. Some would run, they would deal with them later. Many would die. And a few would share vital secrets. His siphons flared with power, as if they knew what was coming. As they neared the center of camp, Hybern soldiers ran out to meet them. The bigger, more experienced, winged warriors easily took down the few that ran at them and kept moving. Those that had awoken in their tents and taken the time to gather themselves came at them from behind, and they were met with the same quiet, winged death.

The commander and his men stood defiantly near their tent as Azriel strode toward them, his men on watch behind him. He had counted 19 men down. 3 stood before him. They would be questioned. That left 5 or more missing, either passed out or cowering. They would pull them out and lock them up to be dealt with later. "Surrender or die." he said coldly to the three before them. Emotionless. He knew they knew who he was, what they faced next. The middle man, most likely the highest ranking commander stepped forward.

"No." he said, and without hesitation, Azriel stepped forward and disarmed him. In a swift motion, he grabbed the smaller male by the neck and slammed him to the ground, knocking him unconscious.

"Yes." he said at him before looking up at the faces of the other two men. They had not moved, and he stood up to walk toward them. They accepted their fate at the sight of it and dropped their weapons. The shadowsinger nodded to two of his soldiers and they took them down in to the dungeon below the castle ruins behind him. He looked to the rest of his companions and signaled for them to search the tents for the remaining Hybern soldiers. 

     Talia had known immediately what was happening. The Hybern camp was being attacked and she could bet money on the culprit. After Braxton ran out, she had huddled in the corner as she listened to the one sided scramble outside, wondering if any of them would be left alive. As the noise died down, she began to slowly pace her tent. They would find her. Her status as a female could help her get an audience with the shadowsinger. If he could hear her out even for a moment, maybe she could could convince him to let her go. She could finally leave the hell that had housed her for nearly 3 years.