The Devils crown

Chapter 1

Lucinda
"Please!" I make the mistake of looking into Ebony's large, blue puppy-dog eyes and now I have no choice.
"Fine, but remember, we both have to keep our eyes open this time, we're both tired and we can't rely on me being able to spot assailants and-"
"Yay!" Ebony said in such a rare innocence, the fact that she insists to put up her platinum blond hair into two piggy tails certainly does not help her look her age.
And so, against all logic and reasoning, we head down the main road, rather than the safer, less known track. Why? Not for any reason other than that Ebony wanted to pick the flowers.

Damn puppy-dog eyes.

Despite what it might look or seem like, Ebony isn't that much younger than me, she was actually born less than a year after me. Not that anyone would ever guess that.

It seemed that immediately after we started walking that Ebony forgot all caution and all my warnings as she immediately ran from side to side of the road, picking up whatever flowers took her interest, leaving me to keep watch of our surroundings.

After all, we humans are naturally the weakest of the species.

It's actually rather sad, less then ten years ago walking down this road it would have been hard to walk for ten minutes without seeing any other travellers, but after the demon king was murdered, all hell broke loose (no pun intended), and the five races of Tefi were at full scale war, it took no longer than the five small months that a year is for the first race to fall, the trolls were a greedy and reckless race, the other races despised them for this, and they were now completely eradicated, only remaining ruins and the bickering demons, angels, elves and humans.

You'd imagine angels to peaceful and compassionate creatures, and they used to be, believe me I know, but that is not the case anymore. It seemed as soon as the fighting began all the compassion that the angels had faded away, they now destroy anything and everything they consider impure, and there is not much that they do.

"Lucinda come here! It's a Sidu flower!" I form a faint smile on my face and come over. Sidu flowers are these beautiful star shaped flowers with a black centre and white tips, as children we used Sidu flowers a sign our friendship, as we have very contrasting personalities, just like the black and white. To be honest, as kids, we didn't really know what the flowers were called, so we used the ancient words for light -Si- and dark -Du, pronounced doo- that I learned from my tutor. While it's childish, it is a concept that we have always held onto.

I kneel down next to Ebony as she picks them all and tidies them all into a neat bundle, completely forgetting her previous bundle. Even at half a meter away, I can smell the unique scent of the Sidu flowers, it has a rich sweet and spicy scent that can only be compared to cinnamon, but even that doesn't quite do it justice.

Then all too quickly, I feel a cool blade against my throat as am pulled up by large strong arms, I begin to struggle for my scabbard but freeze when I see Ebony in a similar position with a knife to her throat, flowers discarded on the ground.

I take a quick look a the man holding her, a gruff, dirty, hairy man, and I know who's attacking us, bandits.

Shit.

If it was the human army there would be a large chance of us getting out of this alive, but with bandits, they never follow their word, they mug you, then kill you anyway.

I look in Ebony's questioning eyes, pleading me to tell her what to do to get out of this, I start to look at the two men for weak points, unkept weapons, anything that will stop me from making-

Sssssht.

My attacker falls back, and I turn to find an arrow in his head. A man in a hooded cloak jumps out from the bushes and twists Ebony's attacker's arm away from her neck and into a position that an arm should most certainly not be in, before hitting him on the back of the head with excessive force, causing the bandit to fall unconscious. 

I find myself momentarily frozen in shock as I watch the cloaked man kneel down and pick up the bundle of flowers Ebony dropped. He takes of his hood to reveal a fair headed young man. He is joined with a brunette man with pointed ears and a bow from the bushes.

"Madam, are you alright?" He asks politely with perfect pronunciation, yet with a hint of an ancient accent. He softly hands Ebony her flowers as she blushes deep red.

I suddenly feel myself able to move again. I pull out my sword from its scabbard, its pure white blade flashing as I place its tip against his chest.

"What do you want?" I ask with a threatening voice.

"Woah, woah, woah. A thank you would be nice, after all we did just save your life." His brunette friend practically squealed, but kept a stern look on his face. I just glared at him.

"You're an elf, aren't you?" Came Ebony's innocently curious voice. I sigh and put my sword down, any chance of intimidation disappeared with Ebony's soft voice.

"Eh, yeah." The elf's eyes became softer glancing at Ebony, and I knew what he was thinking, I have thought it too, time to time. How can there be a girl as innocent as Ebony in times like these?

Simple answer; there can't be.

Ebony was special in many ways, but she was not oblivious to what's been going on, how could she when she was with me when the angels torched our village. No, she only acted innocent, as that seemed to be the only way for her to cope, she seemed to believe that if she acted oblivious she'd forget the horrors of that night, but we both know we can't.

"Don't worry, Lucinda just has a hard times trusting strangers, my names Ebony, we're from Healryst" Strike one, you block my intimidation tactics, strike two, you reveal our identities, strike three, you tell them where we are from of all things, Ebony I am going to kill you! I glare at Ebony who is smiling brightly and I melt. No I'm not.

"Madam," I turn to see the cloaked one looking me in the eye. "I sincerely apologise if we startled you. We should have realised that traveling alone like you are would have caused any person to feel a lack of trust in these tough times." I nod.

"Yeah, but your friend here is right, we owe you-"I am interrupted by the sound of many footsteps, I raise my blade and step in front of Ebony in time to see that while we were talking we've been surrounded by the human army.

Only one thought passes through my mind. Shit.