The Queen of the Elves

Chapter 13

A light suddenly blared in Mason’s face and he staggered backwards. He cried out to try to warn Caroline and Bernard, but it was too late. A huge, smoldering hand reached out and covered Mason’s face, smothering him. The next moment Mason fell to the ground completely unconscious.

Caroline let out a muffled cry, but Bernard didn’t make a sound. He had had his freedom; he had seen the small speck of light at the end of the tunnel. He could still see it. He had been so close.

Caroline stared at Mason limp on the ground. He had tried, she told herself, he just can’t work miracles. There’s only so much a person can do. She didn’t want anyone to know that she had finally begun to hope just as the fire giant had appeared. She couldn’t stand the thought of hoping. She shouldn’t have let that inkling of hope spring up. Now it was smashed and there was less of it than before. She should have been more wary. Nothing could be done about that now. They were trapped and there really was no escape.

Bernard stared behind at the light as it grew smaller and smaller. The giant led them back down into the depths leaving Mason on the cold, hard, stone ground. Bernard watched the pinpoint of light until it disappeared. Then he turned to face his doom.

An hour later Bernard, Caroline and Mason were bound to the utmost, they couldn’t move their upper-bodies at all. Their feet and legs however were made sure to be free so they would be able to carry themselves to their deaths. Mason had been thrown before the queen and sentenced to death along with the other two. It had been decided that he was too strong-willed to be kept alive any longer.

He couldn’t help feeling despair. There really was no escape for any of them. He kept looking at Caroline. He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of her hair, for, though it was matted it still flowed gracefully down her back and was the only beautiful thing in sight. Elves are normally thought of as beautiful creatures, but elves outsides match their insides. If they were mean-spirited inside they were hideous on the outside. Only the mean elves ever had anything to do with executions, and they were held in a most terrible section of the cave that was their prison.

The elves pushed from behind forcing their captives down, down, down. Richie was present and the queen had ordered him to help with the transport of the condemned. He poked at Bernard with his sword, and jabbed at Mason when he swayed in the least. Bernard really didn’t need another reason for despair, but his best friend forcing him to his death, well, that was just a lot to grasp.

“Richie.” Caroline whispered, “Richie, would you please stop. Bernard’s walking, you don’t need to stab him. Richie?”

Richie looked at her then quickly looked away again. Mason took a second look at Richie and noticed his eyes twitching. Something was up with him, he wasn’t staring off into space anymore and his eyes were jumping around wildly. Was he waking up? Could it be possible?

Caroline stumbled and Mason sidestepped to catch her with his shoulder. She fell into him then righted herself under the influence of several clubs poking her. Mason wished he could say something to make her feel better, but even if he was able to talk he wouldn’t know what to say. What do you say to a dying person? He was dying too, he wasn’t really thinking clearly.

They came to a large cavern finally and the threesome were fastened to the ceiling like Bernard and Richie had been earlier with the worm. Caroline let her head drop and her eyes close. She sighed long and low and tried to steady her breathing. What did it matter if she died honorably or not? Her parents would never know how she really died and her brother wouldn’t care. In fact her parents probably wouldn’t really care either, who was there to care whether she died honorably, or at all in that case? No one. She should just stop caring. Death was sweet enough for her, heaven would be nice. Maybe God would let her in even after she had slipped so far away from Him in the past few months. Maybe, just maybe everything would end up better with her dying. That’s just what she would have to believe because she wasn’t the kind of person who could stop thinking easily.

Mason wasn’t ready to die. He was young for a changeling, changelings and humans have about the same life expectancy. He was only seventeen, a kid almost. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want Caroline to die either. She was so delicate, and beautiful. He wished that he could give his life for her, but his life wasn’t worth hers. He would need three or four of his lives at least to save hers; at least that’s what he figured. She was so special, it was such a shame for her to be destroyed.

He watched as they finished securing Bernard and the ceremony began. The chains were raised and slowly Mason’s feet left the ground. He fixed his eyes on Caroline, he would see beauty last. Her face was perfectly blank, her eyes were shut and she looked almost peaceful. Peace. Mason wished that he would be able to have peace, or at least pretend that he was at peace.

The guards began to dance around beneath them, burning torches under them and letting the smoke rise and squeeze the air from their lungs. Caroline’s head began to droop and she began to cough. Finally her head fell. Mason stared in dismay at her. The first to pass out would be killed first, he knew.

He coughed violently and let his own head fall. But he couldn’t pass out. With his luck he would remain awake until the end. He watched as Bernard passed out, then Richie stepped forward with his sword and the queen followed closely behind with the bottle of poison powder.

Mason raised his eyes and watched as they passed out of the crowd and slowly came forward towards them. Richie’s eyes were still twitching. Mason looked closer and saw, to his utmost surprise an almost imperceptible wink.

Then suddenly Richie whirled and raised his sword. The next minute the queen was no more and chaos broke in the crowd. Caroline came-to just as Richie was overwhelmed by the crowd. She screamed, but it was drowned out with her gag and the noise of the crowd below. All of a sudden roots shot from above and whipped around Richie. He was overcome with them and completely covered. There was just a lump of roots where he had once been.

The next minute the root ball was shooting at amazing speeds straight up. Caroline stared in awe as Richie escaped a near-death experience. Then, in just the same way she was enveloped in roots. She sucked in as much air as she could, remembering her prior experience with roots. She then felt herself flying through the air. A moment later everything was perfectly still.

Mason watched as Bernard too was carried up, the chains snapping with the sudden jolt. He waited for his turn, hoping that the trees weren’t too angry with him, but nothing happened. The angry mob was becoming more organized and one elf grabbed the bottle of poison and made for Mason.

“You won’t get away!”

They had Mason down on the ground before the roots could get a hold of him. The elf with the poison made for him, but the angry crowd got in the way. They all came at Mason with boiling ferocity. They pounded and kicked and bit and spit at him. He was thrown first this way and then that way. There was no escape for him. This was the end.