Elves_ Once Walked with Gods Part 39

Chapter 36.

Do not follow me. Believe in me and then follow your heart.

'Ynissul of Ysundeneth. Al-Arynaar of the threads of elves. TaiGethen, my brothers and sisters. Among you are those who have heard of me but not seen me. There are those who have seen me but do not know me. And there are those who fought by me and thought never to see me again. I failed you all as I failed the elven race.

'I am Takaar.'

Katyett had always felt that the phrase 'heart in mouth' was melodramatic and ridiculous. No longer. Her pulse thudded so hard in the back of her throat it was painful. The lump could not be swallowed and she thought to choke at every breath. She felt giddy and leant on Grafyrre for support, muttering prayer after prayer that this would not all go horribly wrong. Not for her sake. For him. Takaar. She found that she wanted him to be accepted. To be heard. Understood. Respected even. But not ridiculed. Not that, she prayed to Yniss. Anything but that.

If Takaar had expected adulation or abhorrence at his unveiling, he was disappointed. There was a murmur through the crowd but nothing more. Takaar let it subside. Standing a pace behind him, Auum turned to Katyett and nodded his confidence. Takaar continued.

'I am not here to ask for forgiveness or to seek redemption. Those things are rightly denied me. The blood of every elf of every thread who died when I fled the walls of the Tul-Kenerit is on my hands. Through ten years of exile it has not scrubbed away. It will remain there for ever. As it should.

'So I am standing here not as a general or a leader but as an ordinary ula asking for your help in the fight to rid our country of men, to restore the harmony of the elves and to return us all to the lives we love. I wonder if you'll listen to me.'

Out in the crowd many nodded their heads. A few said 'Yes' and fewer still applauded, demanding more. Takaar inclined his head deferentially.

'Thank you.' He pointed up at the mage. 'Up there, against all nature and Yniss himself, the eyes of man search for us. Beneath the canopy, they seek us. And in the city thousands of men of violence await the word to attack. Just as they await the word to slaughter helpless elves imprisoned in their own homes.

'Inevitably, they will find this hiding place and then they will send out their mages with their castings and they will attempt to burn us and to flush us out onto the swords of their warriors. They want us all dead. You, me and the TaiGethen, who they rightly fear.'

Consternation ran through the crowd. Katyett closed her eyes. Grafyrre drew in a sharp breath. But Takaar merely walked another pace forward and held up his hands.

'Yes, we're in trouble. But if we work together, we can get out of trouble. Some of us will die. Others will be wounded. Some will panic and flee. Such is the way. I know. But be a.s.sured, I do not expect you to take up swords against these men and their magic. That is the work of TaiGethen and Al-Arynaar. All I want you to do is this.

'Listen to instructions. Question nothing. Move where you are asked as quickly as you are asked. Help those less able to help themselves. Carry wounded. Move water and food. Give courage to those who need it. Stand with your people against whatever comes at you. Because if you do, the TaiGethen and Al-Arynaar will be able to face the enemy with strength and focus.

'I-'

Takaar stopped and stared out and up at the mage in the southern sky. He pointed vaguely and began to shake his head.

'Oh no,' breathed Auum. 'He's going to lose it right in front of them.'

The crowd began to stir, many looking up at the mage, who was some way distant and no threat whatever. Others were pointing at Takaar, and more than one called for him to be helped. Auum ran over, stood in front of Takaar and looked at him. He paled visibly.

'He needs help,' said Auum. 'Quickly.'

Pelyn and Katyett both moved. Takaar pushed Auum away.

'No.' He turned and Katyett pulled up short, seeing the pallor of his face, the tremble in his lower lip and the red filling the whites of his eyes. Sweat covered his features and a vein pulsed in his temple. 'It's coming. The magic is coming. That mage is not searching. He's watching.'

'He's-' began Katyett.

A deep-brown magical orb arced across the sky, trailing steam behind it. It hung at its apex for a moment, beguiling the crowd, which stared up, entranced. The orb began to fall.

'Scatter!' yelled Katyett. 'Get under the canopy.'

Iad and ula, screaming and shouting, scattered, looking for shelter, a way out, anything. The orb crashed through the broad leaves of trees high above them. It ploughed into the branch of a mighty banyan that acted as the outer stay of the bivouac and exploded into a thousand tears of fire as big as a fist. They showered down across the camp.

Order disintegrated. Undergrowth, gra.s.s, leaf and branch were set ablaze. Elves were thrown to the ground, their flesh eaten in heartbeats by the voracious magical flames. Screams rose with the smoke and stench of burning. Ynissul ran blindly, pus.h.i.+ng aside any who got in their path.

Katyett turned to her people inside the bivouac. 'Illast, see Olmaat to safety. Head for the river and go south. TaiGethen, to the hunt. Sikaant, you'll be needed by the lost out there in the forest. Pelyn, run the flanks of the Ynissul - you're the last defence they have. Find the men. Kill them.'

TaiGethen and Al-Arynaar flowed out from under the bivouac, muttering prayers as they went, smearing their faces with brown and green paint. Katyett watched them help Ynissul from the ground, those that could be helped. She heard cries of fear and shouts for help. Dozens lay out there, dead or dying. Nothing to do for them now but pray for their souls to find the embrace of Shorth.

More orbs filled the sky alongside the rain Katyett had seen falling over the city a few nights ago.

'Yniss preserve us,' said Grafyrre.

An orb detonated on the roof of the bivouac. It ripped skin, timber and palm apart. Blew the moss of years to dust and sent the whole lot cras.h.i.+ng down to the forest floor. To the rear of the bivouac, Katyett saw Illast and his Tai dive out with Olmaat on his stretcher, clinging on as he b.u.mped and slid along the ground.

Auum grabbed Katyett's arm and dragged her out into the blazing camp. Roof supports thundered down in their wake. Fire fell around them. Orbs smashed through the thin canopy, splattering across the roofs of dormitories, immolating brush and torching the carpet of gra.s.s. Bodies were consumed where they fell.

Katyett stared about her, desperate for sight of Takaar. Auum held her steady, weaving a path through the fire deluging the ruined haven. An orb battered into a small stand of trees to their right, sending fire las.h.i.+ng out across the camp in head-high sheets. Auum dived, taking Katyett down with him. She landed and rolled, waking from her trance. She came to her feet. Auum was staring at her. She nodded and the two of them sprinted under the canopy.

South and east, the shouts of panicked civilians were a beacon for the enemy. The shrieks and cries sounded m.u.f.fled through the canopy. Countless animals, startled at the sounds of elves and terrified by the smell of burning and the sight of fire, set up a deafening cacophony all around the camp. The human attack had been expertly laid. The Ynissul were scattered from their protectors, easy prey. But the king predators of the forest had been set loose: TaiGethen were thick on the ground.

Katyett came to a halt and turned. Grafyrre and Merrat were right behind her. Marack and Takaar in their wake. Takaar had vomit on his chin and down the front of his s.h.i.+rt. He looked groggy, on the verge of pa.s.sing out. The flames were gorging on the land immediately behind, roaring and hissing. Smoke and steam billowed up to skies darkening for the next rains.

'You're enjoying this, aren't you?' said Takaar.

Katyett made to reply but Auum touched her on the arm and shook his head.

'Hoping that one of those things falls on my head and I die screaming. Chilmatta nun kerene. You can stop chanting it. I've heard it all before.' He stared at Katyett. 'I've lost my blowpipe.'

'Takaar,' said Katyett firmly. 'Listen to me.'

More orbs fell on the camp, blasting little more than ash now. The fires were beginning to eat into the dense canopy. Fires that rain would struggle to extinguish. Takaar dragged his head around and fixed Katyett with a gaze full of pain and fury. Katyett flinched.

'I know where they lie,' he said and moved off at startling speed.

Katyett ran after him, seeing how his feet made barely an impression on the forest floor and his body hardly touched the thick vegetation around him.

'Marack, Auum, make a cell with Takaar. Marack, you're leader. Graf, Merrat, to me. Let's do some damage.'

Onelle had lost Rydd. The surge out of the camp, the blooming heat from the castings and the confusion of the dark beneath the heavy canopy had generated such panic. The shouts of lost and injured iad and ula echoed hollowly through the thick, grasping vegetation. The stench of burned flesh followed her through the hanging branches and tangled vine and liana. There was noise everywhere yet she found herself alone.

She ran left, then straight ahead and then right. Chasing the fading sounds of other Ynissul. Onelle called out for Rydd twice but heard nothing other than the calls of animals. She couldn't understand how she had lost them all. She thought she'd been heading towards the stream, but perhaps she hadn't left the camp that way after all. So hard to remember in all the confusion.

Eventually, she stopped and rested against the bole of a tree. She checked the ground for anything dangerous before letting her back slide down the bark till she was squatting, mainly hidden by ferns. She remembered one thing Katyett told her. That she wouldn't hear TaiGethen, that only civilians and enemies made noise in the forest. So she decided to wait and listen while she tried to orient herself.

Onelle looked up to find the sun but there was only the green and black of the canopy. Full of life and death. She knew she should be able to see flames from the camp still, but turning around in her hiding place, she could see nothing in any direction. A haze of smoke drifted around her. It didn't help.

The screaming began then. Faint at first but growing louder and closer very quickly. Six Ynissul came past her. Two hanging on to each other. Another four trying to push them along more quickly. They kept looking over their shoulders. They needed to look ahead, Onelle wanted to shout but didn't.

A human stepped into their path. He swung a sword and carved into the front pair at the waist. Blood slapped into broad leaves. The elves tumbled sideways together. The other four stopped, split and ran. A man came up from behind and swept his blade through the back of one. A second fetched up against a tree and begged for mercy. The blade was driven straight through her unprotected heart.

Onelle put a hand to her mouth to stop herself crying out. She was shaking. The tears were streaming down her face. She didn't want to see what happened to the other two but someone had to be able to report it.

The surviving Ynissul had both stopped running and were backing away, holding out their hands but saying nothing. Three swordsmen moved towards them. Smiling. How she would have liked to smear those smiles from their ugly faces and turn them into blood. She took her hand from her mouth and made it into a claw. Her nails were good and sharp. Perhaps she should.

A shadow whipped by her right-hand side. A man began to turn. Twin blades took him in the neck and across the midriff. A keening sound grew. A jaqrui lodged in the face of another man, biting deep into the bridge of his nose and slicing into both eyes. The third was felled by a flurry of punches and kicks too fast to follow. None was shouting his agony for long.

Onelle found herself terrified all over again. The violence of man had been brutal but the speed of the TaiGethen was truly shocking. She wanted to stand and show herself but something stopped her from moving. A feeling, nothing more. She watched the TaiGethen check the elven bodies and comfort the survivors before pointing them on their way.

One turned and walked directly towards her, stopping a few paces away and crouching. Onelle didn't recognise her. She held out a hand. Onelle shook her head.

'It's safe now,' she said. 'You can come out.'

'It isn't. Please,' said Onelle.

A terrible aching cold howled through the s.p.a.ce in front of her. Frost deepened on leaf and branch, blackening everything it touched. The storm of ice and wind raged past her, forcing her to clutch herself tight and close her eyes. And as quickly as it had come, it blew out, leaving her nauseous but alive. Though when she opened her eyes, of the TaiGethen, fallen men and elf, there was nothing left at all.

A cloaked human crunched onto the ice-rimed ground and looked about him, his expression one of satisfaction, of revenge complete. Onelle had no idea what possessed her then. She stood from her cover and walked in front of him. She was still chilled to the bone, though the frost was beginning to melt from the leaves around her, leaving them blackened and dead.

The man stopped and backed off a pace before smiling when he saw her for the lone lost iad she was. He chuckled and muttered under his breath. Onelle hated everything about the man. Hated the eyes that looked on her as nothing more than an animal. Hated the smell of him, and hated what he carried within him. She could sense it. Energy forged to evil.

Onelle ran across the gap. She was quick. Very quick. She c.o.c.ked her arm and lashed her fingers across his throat. She felt her nails catch, dig in and rip at his flesh. She should have recoiled but it didn't feel revolting. It felt right. Deep they went, the tips of her fingers snagging sinew and her nails catching on his windpipe. She dug in her thumb and closed her hand. Blood was pouring over her wrist and forearm. The mage gurgled, his face gone from contempt to shock.

'Do not dare kill my people,' said Onelle.

She jerked her hand back hard.

Takaar was a heartbeat too late. The mage pushed out his hands. The ula in his sights was plucked from the ground and crushed against a tree, his head making a horrible cracking sound as it struck. The body slumped. Takaar hurdled a low branch, kept his left leg straight and caught the mage in the side of the head.

The casting failed and the ula fell to the ground. Takaar landed and spun. Auum had run to his left. Warriors were on them. Beside him the mage still moved. His body was jerking and his eyelids fluttered. Takaar dropped to his knees and jabbed straight-fingered into his throat. Death for him would be full of desperate fear.

Takaar leaned to one side and vomited bile. Castings were still falling all over this region of the forest, making his head spin and his stomach turn over. He squeezed his eyes shut, searching for a way to contain his reactions. He stared down at the mage, who still clung on to life, choking and making feeble grabs at his throat.

'What you have,' whispered Takaar, 'I can take from you.'

Everyone and everything had this energy to a greater or lesser extent. It was an element as common as air. But this body before him had more. Like he was able to hold it, focus it in to something far more dense than any ordinary man, elf or beast.

'What you have learned, I will learn,' said Takaar.

This to be your grand new project, is it?

'Don't start on me.'

I'd work on living right now if you really must.

'Takaar! Roll!'

Takaar twisted left. A blade bit the ground where he had been kneeling. Marack leapt over him, landed and round-housed the human soldier in the side of the head. Off balance, Katyett's blades saw him to the wrath of Shorth.

Marack turned and held out a hand. Takaar took it and stood.

'We're clear here,' said Auum. 'We've got them running back towards the Ultan.'

'Keep them turned,' said Takaar. 'Katyett. Don't let them regroup.'

'Normally I'd agree with you, but right now we have more pressing concerns. Pelyn! Pelyn, I need you.'

An Al-Arynaar came into view from their left. Takaar recognised him but couldn't place him.

'Methian,' said Katyett. 'You'll do just as well.'

Methian. That was it. Pelyn's confidant. No wonder he didn't look at Takaar with any warmth.

'She's close,' said Methian. 'She'll have heard you.'

'We have to round the survivors up. Get them away from here. Olbeck Rise would be ideal. Think you can square it with the Apposans?'

'I reckon,' said Methian.

'How many did we lose, do you think?' asked Merrat.

'Hundreds,' said Methian. 'Hundreds. No exaggeration.'

'TaiGethen will track for you. Follow the stream. We'll secure the route and send them on as we find them.'

'Katyett?'

Pelyn appeared from the undergrowth along with two other Al-Arynaar. Brothers. Deserters but perhaps forgiven by now. She glanced at Takaar, bit her lip and focused on Katyett instead.

'Are you clear?'

Pelyn nodded. 'The last we chased are either dead or running for the Ultan bridge.'

'Good,' said Katyett. 'We're clearing towards...o...b..ck Rise. Methian will fill you in.'

Pelyn shook her head.