A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long since an update. I've been working on perfecting my synopsis and query letter for 'The Crimson Claymore' and sending them out to a few agents. Wish me luck. I'm also thinking about putting 'The Crimson Claymore' on kickstarter and asking my poor friends and you guys, to help me, who is even more poor. To raise around 2,500$ that it would cost to have my novel professionally edited so perhaps I can have better luck getting it published somewhere. Thanks for all the support from everybody, please comment and let me know what you think.
Chapter 21:
Starlyn stood outside the recently abandoned drayek camp. Tears stormed down her face in rivers on uncontrollable sobs. Shronan stepped next to her and gently put his hand onher shoulder. She brushed the water from her eyes and clasped her hand over his.
“We will find her,” he said.
“I wish I could believe you, but we have been one step behind her this whole time. Everywhere we go we miss her by a breadth. She knows our moves.”
“She is smart, but she is not perfect Starlyn. Nobody is. She will make a mistake,” Shronan said.
“When?” Starlyn whispered.
“I don’t know,” admitted Shronan, “But when she does, we’ll be there.”
Starlyn nodded and brushed the tears of her haunted past away. The sun had fallen behind purple haze in the sky and a full moon shone brightly directly aboe her. She wondered if she would ever see her mother again. Her sister, Arria, did such a good job of disappearing into the night. She remembered the day so long ago when she released the arrow that stabbed her sister in the back. Arria fell to the ground, Starlyn knew her aim was true, but when she looked back through tear infected eyes, the body was gone. Nearly six months passed before she ever found a sign of her sister. She knew if there was one thing Arria was good at, it was to disappear. Even before the black magic claimed her soul, Arria would disappear for months at a time without notice, the same as their mother. Starlyn felt she the only one whom wanted the security of a home and family.
Anaela walked up to her and put her hand gently upon her shoulder as she fingered the hammer her sister gave her so long ago. The hammer was forged by Arria herself many decades ago with love and compassion. It seemed the last warming memory she had of her sister as she gripped the hammer. Swirls of silver and gold throughout the metal made it glitter in the starlight and though it was large it still felt comfortable and light in one hand. The handle was long enough for her to steady it with two hands with strikes, but the weapon felt light enough to only need one steady hand. She missed the weapon dearly and felt naked when she was without it.
“We will find her,” Anaela said.
Even though Starlyn hadn’t known Anaela for very long, she felt a bond between them, a trust that ran much deeper than any of the other elves traveling with her or those in the heart of Sudegam. Anaela might be void of the memories of her past and clueless about where she came from, but her compassion towards Starlyn and her desire to help made her the closest person Starlyn ever had to a friend. Even before the last few months that her mother had been sick, she never really fit in with the high elves of Sudegam. Her mother was often rebellious towards the rules the king set forth for the elves to abide by. She didn’t believe they should isolate themselves from the humans of the land. Instead, she believed an alliance between elves and humans could benefit the entire land of Calthoria and lessen the wars the humans often had against themselves.
The king was set against any such relations, and claimed the humans were too young a race to understand the proper definition of peace. Bloodlust traveled through their veins, and no treaty would deny their savage nature and the fights would never stop. Because of such arguments Starlyn never felt she could fit in with any of the other elves whom already looked at her skeptically. Arria felt the way her mother did, in fact Arria always seemed a mirror image of their mother in both beauty and spirit. Starlyn tried everything she could to please her mother, and while she didn’t understand the passion her mother held for such policies, she didn’t agree with the king about interactions with humans should be completely forbidden.
Starlyn shivered as she traveled swiftly with Anaela by her side, dashing through the forests of Calthoria too far away to ever reach her mother in time. She knew she would be too late to reach Sudegam, but Anaela stayed ahead with her as the others traveled behind, and a wood elf knew tracking better than anyone. Starlyn always thought herself a good tracker, only slightly behind that of her older sister Arria, but Anaela found things she couldn’t even imagine. As a wood elf she was one with nature.
Sometimes when she knelt on the ground to graze the leaves and she would whisper to the trees and ask for answers. Starlyn could hear the breeze as they responded, but could not hear words like Anaela could. The path led north and outside of the great forest of Calthoria into the valleys towards the seas. Vil’ek had sent word to a few of the elves that traveled with them and they returned from Sudegam with a sizable force to stop Arria. Starlyn, Anaela, and Shronan led the way with Vil’ek and company traveling close behind. Nearly three hundred elves traveled with them in the largest force ever gathered by the elves. Never before had such a force been united by the elves, but it was clear that Elsargast was afraid of the threat. Starlyn wondered if he was afraid because of the dark magic that Arria harnessed to do her bidding, or if it was because of the thought of free will she opened. For so long all of the elves did exactly as they were told. They stayed away from the dark books of the library, they stayed away from humans or any other creatures of the land. Elves secluded themselves into ignorance, and Arria shattered it into a field of questions. What limits can an elf really have?
For years Starlyn’s mother had been asking those same questions, but for the most part the king had kept the rest of the elves isolated from following her. Starlyn knew the king didn’t care about the health of her mother, in fact it would probably be a liability for him, an elf of free thought that would not be missed. That fact alone made Starlyn weary(ck) of the elves that followed her. She trusted Anaela and Shronan, but nobody else. Vil’ek might be trustworthy because of his love for her sister, but his allegiance is first for the king. Starlyn knew that whatever happened she would have to go for her mother alone, and use her own abilities and faith to save her.
Anaela grabbed Starlyn’s arm and kept her from traveling another step. “We approach, allow me to travel ahead and scout the area.”
Starlyn nodded, “Return swiftly my friend.”
Anaela smiled warmly and nodded before she disappeared through the bushes to another clearing. The surrounding area was no longer the deep forests of pine and redwood, but instead valleys full of hills and scattered bushes and ferns. Starlyn waited for several minutes until Anaela returned with face struck with worry.
“What’s wrong?” Starlyn asked.
“There are nearly six-hundred of the creatures. Your sister and your mother are on an elevated stone that looks like a sacrificial pit of some sort. There is a large steaming cauldron and three prisoners. One young boy that looks strange, I do not think he is an elf. The other two are elves… wood elves if I can tell the difference. They are bounded by rope and gags. I do not think we have long to save their lives.” Anaela said.
“Let’s go,” Starlyn called.
Before Starlyn could get too far, out of the bushes appeared thirty of the dragon creatures with axes held high and slithering with long tongues.
“Kill the dragons!” Starlyn called.
She lifted her war hammer high and shoved the blunt end into the jaw of one of the creatures that split it nearly in two. As she did another dragon came at her from the side and knocked her into a third. She no longer had the arm length to maneuver her large hammer. Before she could panic, three arrows enchanted with lightning embedded themselves in the two creatures that surrounded her. When she turned back she noticed Anaela nodding at her as she secured three arrows to her bow and released, each arrow striking a different target at incredible accuracy. Starlyn never saw such precision with a bow.
It only took a matter of minutes for their sizable force to strike down the creatures that bombarded them. Anaela killed the most of them with her enchanted arrows, besides the lightning she also shot fire and ice arrows compliments of Shronan Onderon’s magic.
Starlyn stepped through the clearing where she saw her sister up on a platform with a long obsidian dagger in her hand and smiling as she looked straight into Starlyn’s eyes. Three prisoners were bound and gagged on their knees in front of Arria. Each looked hopelessly toward Starlyn with pleading in their tear-struck eyes. Starlyn took one step forward, but when she did Arria’s grin cast the rest of her face in shadow as she placed the dagger against the young boy’s throat. He wasn’t elven of any kind, besides it was the wrong year to have children, unless the wood elves had different rules. However, his face didn’t have the perfect lines that an elf would. Starlyn could only assume that he was human, and even more fragile than any she knew. His eyes bulged as the knife tore through his neck, and even though he was gagged, there wasn’t enough time for him to cry out in pain. The knife slit through his neck in less than a second and his body dropped to the floor. Arria raised the dagger to her mouth, closed her eyes, and licked the blood off. In her other hand she caught blood from the boy’s artery and dropped it into a deep black cauldron at her side.
Eyes in fright and body shaking, Starlyn stepped forward. Arria already made her way to the next prisoner with blade at his neck. Starlyn kept her disgust at bay as well as the ever turning revulsion in her stomach. She had no idea her sister had gone so far, and she gave up all hope that she could bring her sister back. There was little left to do, except what was needed to be done.
“Stop her,” Starlyn choked.
Anaela didn’t hesitate, and released a single arrow towards Arria from 300 yards back. Her aim astonished Starlyn, and even Arria as the arrow penetrated into Arria’s hand that held the dagger. The obsidian blade shattered as it fell to the ground and Arria’s piercing scream caused every one of the elves and dragons alike to cover their ears in terror.
“Kill them all!” Arria screamed.