The Prince's Mark

The Road to Dezmer - Three

But the elf ignored him. He knelt down next to one of the soldiers and took the sword at his hip. Slowly, he stood back up again, holding the sword carefully. The sword was double edged with a blunt tip that flared wider than the blade's base. The edges near the base of the sword were serrated. The sight of those jagged edges made Tracou shudder. Dezmek didn't use swords or weapons of any kind for two reasons: their lack of physical strength and they could use magic instead. Seeing an object that was so obviously made to hack things apart sickened him.

"Pendaer," Mirthal began, sounding as subdued as one could while shouting, "I want you to teach me how to use a sword."

"Your highness!" Pendaer was taken aback, his tone absolutely mortified. "You know I can't do that! The queen—!"

"You're going to do it. I know the queen forbade it, but we aren't in the Elven Kingdom anymore!" Mirthal's face twisted in hatred. "I've had enough of cowering when faced with humans!"

Oddly, Pendaer went quiet at this. He didn't move for several moments, but, eventually, he approached a man on the ground and took his sword and even the sheath.

This satisfied Mirthal. With Pendaer's compliance secured, he examined the sword in his hands.

The idea of Mirthal using a sword didn't make much sense to Tracou. He hadn't stood a chance at arm wrestling a human, so why did he think he could best one in armed combat? At least with a bow he would be far away.

Pendaer, who had given up on the archer up above entirely, started to approach Mirthal. After a few paces he hesitated and then moved over to Tracou instead.

"They look like the men guarding that castle," Pendaer shouted, averting his gaze from Tracou.

This was not normal, but Tracou was shaken enough to ignore that for now.

"Do you think they were following us?"

"Maybe from a distance. We would have heard them, otherwise! The only reason they were able to surprise us is because of this infernal waterfall!"

Tracou nodded. The idea that people had been following them made his skin feel even more clammy than the water vapor did.

"What should we do with them?" Mirthal called as he trotted towards them. "I don't want this to happen again!"

Elves did not kill people as a general rule, but if they let these men go they might attack them again. They might even follow them into Dezmer which Tracou could not allow. But tying them up would lead to them likely starving to death, as would breaking their legs. Even blinding them might do the same thing.

If Tracou had his say, he would want them totally incapacitated, whether that was by blinding them, tying them up, or something else didn't matter. For the elves, they refused anything that might lead to the men's deaths. Pendaer could accept at least restraining these men before leaving, but Mirthal kept insisting that there had to be a way around doing something like that.

As they argued, the air around them began to smell off. Tracou turned his face toward the cliff again. A cloud of gray dust was spreading from that cliff and descending down on them, carried by a leisurely, but persistent, wind. It almost looked like ash, but Tracou couldn't smell any fire.

In no time at all, Tracou felt his eyes burning. He winced, shutting them, and held up his wand to disperse to cloud.

But nothing happened.

Tracou tried again, highly aware of how much magic he was channeling. The moment the magic left the wand, it vanished into the cloud.

"What is this?!" Pendaer growled. He opened his mouth to say more but ended up hacking instead.