Avalyne Series 02: The Easterling (19 page)

The need to escape was overwhelming but she could not even see where she was because the darkness was everywhere. There was a faint memory that it was not always like this, that there was a time when there was light and sounds that
were not this slow, turgid flow of liquid that filled her eardrums. There were memories buried in a place so deep that it was no longer possible for her to remember anything, except the disconcerting sensation when she tried to bring them into focus.

Sometimes, she could feel
the presence of someone beyond her prison. This ‘Other’ as she called it, was able to reach through the wall and touch her mind, the connection weak but there nonetheless. She could sense the Other’s confusion but could not explain because connection between them always withered into pain.

Someday she would get out and find the Other. All she had to do was keep scratching at the walls, searching for the tear that would help her escape.

Scrape.

Scrape.

Scrape.

******

Melia woke up gasping.

Her first impulse had been to scream but somehow she
maintained enough restraint in the dreamscape to avoid it. There was so much and it almost swallowed her whole. Melia sat up struggling for breath as she tried to cope with the images swirling about her head like she was being sucked into an emptying drain.

For the first time, what she saw in her dreams did not diminish with wakefulness. Vivid images
of things she could not possibly know but was certain to be the truth entered her mind through the lingering magic in the walls of that cell. Melia’s intent was to open a door inside her mind that would give her the answers she sought but not even she had expected the sheer force and potency of the infusion. At best, she had hoped for a clue as to where her search should take her next but she now had more than that.

She had a
destination.

It only after the images had assumed their final resting place in her mind that Melia realised where she was.

The sun shone above her head through the canopy of leaves and she realised she was surrounded by forest. She was lying on her bedroll and a blanket was draped about her body. The tasty aroma of something cooking made her glance at the fire in the centre of the campsite. Melia saw her horse and another waiting patiently under the shade of a nearby tree, nickering at each other in their secret language. She recognized the animal beside her own and supposed she should not to be surprised by the gelding’s presence. Sweeping her gaze across immediate area, Melia saw no sign of its rider.

After a moment of contemplation of what would soon be upon her, Melia attempted to stand and found her legs rather shaky. She wondered just how long she
was unconscious. Her mind still felt drowsy from her slumber and it was a few seconds before she was able to brave a step forward. When she did however, her legs ached from the sudden demand for activity. Walking gingerly to the horse, they raised their heads in interest at her approach.

Melia stroked the brow of her horse gently before running her hand over the flank of the other.

‘Where is your master?’ she asked gently as she petted the horse’s flank.

The horse had no ability to answer other than to snap its head back in reaction
to something behind her. Melia turned around and saw Aeron staring at her from across the fire. He was carrying his bow, indicating he had just made a quick scout of the area to ensure they were safe. His first reaction upon seeing her was one of relief but then his blue eyes bore into her mercilessly without a word spoken. Under the scrutiny of that gaze, Melia had no defence.

‘
You came after me?’ She asked after a long pause.

‘
You left.’ Aeron returned shortly. ‘I had little choice but to follow.’

‘
You found me?’ She ventured a guess and then imagined the fear he must have felt finding her in that cell. She felt an immediate surge of guilt at making him endure such worry.

‘
Yes,’ he answered nodded slowly. ‘You were unconscious for almost a day. I thought your mind may have been lost forever.’

‘
I am sorry you have to worry,’ Melia apologized and somehow guessed that it would not nearly be enough to soothe his anger. Despite the concern for her she could see in his eyes, Melia could also see his rage. Rage he was keeping under tight restraint at present. ‘It was the only way I could find him.’

‘
Did you?’ He asked tautly.

‘
I did,’ she nodded, feeling the fear that of a child about to receive punishment for particularly bad behaviour. She could not meet his gaze as she continued, ‘I think the Mage went to the Gahara Plateau to hide. I am not certain of everything I saw but he did something to his prisoners, something that he did not intend and hopes to help there.’

‘
I see,’ Aeron answered curtly. ‘Then we will go there.’

Melia raised her eyes to his.
‘We?’

‘
We,’ he repeated, his jaw flinching in controlled rage. The tension between them was so thick it could have been run through with a sword. ‘We will go there together and deal with what menace he has wrought upon your mother's people.’

‘
I cannot ask you to do that…’ she started to say and realised her mistake but it was too late. The words had already escaped her.

‘
It seems that there is very little that you can ask me.’ Aeron retorted as the last vestiges of his restraint finally snapped free. ‘You have been making all the decisions that affect us both since we met. I suppose I should hardly be surprised that you would simply ride off without the decency of a farewell or for that matter an explanation. I suppose the irony of it should not be lost upon me. After all, how many times have I left some lady’s bedchamber the next morning without a proper goodbye? Still you could have at least left the customary benefice on your departure. What is the going rate for a Prince these days?’

‘
I thought I did what was best!’ She exclaimed because that was harsh even from him. Of course he had a right to be furious. She
had
behaved badly. The more resolute she was to her decision to keep away from him, the more she had broken the rules of conduct between them. Every decision her mind had made regarding him was broken by her heart.

‘
What was best?’ He glared at her. ‘Do you know how sick to death I am of hearing what is best for us?’ He shouted and she jumped at the sharpness of his voice. It was quite something to hear the controlled elf suddenly lose his temper. Aeron crossed the distance between them and was standing by her in seconds.

‘
I woke up that morning filled with hope,’ he replied softly. ‘I thought that perhaps we may find happiness together. You speak as if I have a choice in my decision to love you. I have no more ability to harden my heart against my love than you do! You wish to spare me but what you do not understand is that it is too late, I love you! I will love you until the end of time, whether or not you stay with me or leave now forever. I have done all that I can to convince you. If it were possible for me to become mortal such as Arianne has chosen, I would do so without thinking twice but that way is not open to me. So I seek desperately to reconcile our lives so we can share what time we have together while we still can.’

Melia did not know what to say. All she knew was that since she had left
Halion's court, her heart had been a heavy stone inside her breast and each time she allowed her mind to drift, invariably it would drift to the Prince of Eden Halas. He was a part of her now, no matter how much she sought to deny it. Yet fear still lingered in her heart for she knew what was at the heart of her refusal. She had not wanted to say it because she had clung to it for so long but now was the time the words they could not speak had to be uttered if anything good was to come out of this.

‘
I am scared,’ she replied simply and it was from the heart.

His gaze softened, understanding that at last the
watch guard had stepped aside, it was the woman speaking now. ‘Of what are you frightened, that I will hurt you?’

‘
That you become like my father.’

‘
Your father?’ He stared at her in confusion. ‘I do not understand.’

Melia exhaled deeply because it was so hard to speak of this.
‘My father met my mother on the banks of the Yantra River where I was born. When I was but an infant, he chose to return home and wished her to go with him. The morning we were to leave, she was nowhere to be found. He waited for her to come back but she never did and finally he left without her. It broke his heart to be abandoned by her. He never recovered from it. I swore that I would never be the cause of such pain to anyone. I will leave you Prince, that is a certainty and I do not want you to spend the rest of eternity suffering that loss, being trapped and unable to move on.’

Aeron said a
came to her, his hands on her shoulders as he looked into her eyes and spoke in earnest, ‘You will cause me pain Melia but I will have a lifetime of happiness to take comfort in. Furthermore, we will have children, children that will see me through the days ahead. That makes it worth it.’

‘
I do not know what to do, I still fear for you and I wonder if I am being selfish,’ she started to weep.

Th
e tears he saw running down her cheeks were enough to break the back of his anger completely, until all he wished to do was bundle her in his arms and promise her that he would never regret being with her. Not while there was breath in his body.

‘
I only know that I fear someday this woman you love will disappear and perhaps you might become angry at yourself at binding yourself to me.’ She confessed.

Aeron
took her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly before saying, ‘I promise you on all that I hold dear, that I will never regret loving you Melia. If this is all we have, I will gratefully accept it as long as we spend it together.’

Melia could not see so far ahead but for the moment, she chose to believe him. Perhaps what love they held for one another would be enough to sustain them through the years and perha
ps it would not. Melia needed time to think about what he said. She had a lifetime of prejudice to overcome for him and to make a spur of the moment decision, despite how earnestly he spoke was difficult.

‘
Then give me time Aeron,’ answered after a moment. ‘I cannot think of my future until this quest is done. For now, please know that I love you but I am still afraid but I cannot deny how I feel or ignore it. Let us leave things as they are between us now and I swear to you when this is all done, I will know my mind. You said you would aid me in finding my answers, do you still hold to that?’

‘
You know I do,’ he answered. His arms were still about her as he absorbed what she had to say. He did not agree with her words but he understood her need for time. As much as he wanted her in his life, he also had patience enough to know that her admitting the truth to him went a long way to aiding their cause. He was not so ignorant that he could not see the tremendous step this was for her and he was willing to accommodate her some of the way.

‘
Help me find the truth, my love,’ she whispered as her lips sought his and they indulged in a searing kiss of deep, smouldering passion. ‘Help me understand who I am so I can choose my fate with you.’

At dawn's break, they set out again, this time leaving Eden Halas and bound for the Gahara Plateau. Melia believed that if the Mage was there then so was her mother.

Aeron
was grateful that she slowly accepting the idea of being a part of his life and knew with more confidence than before that their future did lie together despite her fears of it being folly. Melia herself seemed more comfortable at having him at her side and Aeron could not deny that the night before when spent under the stars, adjusting to this new part of their relationship, exploring each other without the entire court of Eden Halas watching closely, was very liberating. When they were alone, they were simply Aeron and Melia, two lovers caught in the same net, not the elf and mortal.

Aeron
wished it was like this always.

To reach the Gahara Plateau where the
Mage had gone, they would first have to cross the Wilds of Avalyne. Much of the Wilds were the eroded escarpment of the Gahara called the Nazkaad Gorge. It was a maze of narrow canyons and rocky hills covered in deciduous trees that came to life only during the spring season.  The vegetation across the escarpment was sparse, confined to waist high shrubs that owed their existence to the water seeping into the ground from Yasnil River that flowed because of the thawing ice from the plateau.

Aeron
travelled this far east only once in his lifetime and it was to track a goblin party that had entered the border of Eden Halas and was driven out by the Forest Guard. Aside from the canyons preceding the plateau, it was also home to the Syphii Chasm where the spiders that decimated Caras Anara had originated. It took only a few days of travel to see the gradual transformation of the lush green hills of Carleon into the sparse, harsh landscape of the Wilds. 

The goblins originated from the caverns
beneath the Gahara Plateau but they were not the only predators to occupy the mesa. It was also home to a nest of animals known as the
krisadors
. They were four footed beasts that were as large as a horse with tusk like teeth and possessed the surefooted agility of a mountain goat. On first sighting, one would think they were lizards. However, they were warm blooded creatures who nursed their young with milk and stalked the hills for the food of their choice, which was more often than not goblin.

As they journeyed eastward, it was still the goblins that concerned Aeron the most.
Since the conclusion of the Shadow War, goblins had been driven from the lands along the eastern borders by elves, humans and dwarves. However, instead of returning to the caverns of Gahara, they instead took refuge in Nazkaad Gorge. The reasons for this were unclear though it was believed that the numbers of krisadors had grown so large that the goblins were falling prey to them easily.

While it was an easy
business to cross Eden Halas in good time, once they entered the Wilds and began moving through Nazkaad Gorge, the Prince's wariness grew. Aeron saw no way forward that would not result in an encounter with goblins. His elven senses began to feel the danger the instant they entered the gorge with the many cracks and fissures in its canyon walls. However, he also knew that not all of the danger he felt was coming from the goblins or the krisadors. There was something else lurking at the edge of his consciousness.

Something
that was awaiting them at the Gahara.

*****
*

‘
What is it?’ Melia asked as they travelled through the gorge, noticing the uneasiness in the Prince the further into it they went. By now, she had some insight into his moods and the dark expression that fallen over his handsome face was telling.

‘
Nothing,’ he answered promptly, having no wish to alarm her unnecessarily while he surveyed the area trying to determine where they could camp safely for the night. The sun was already making its way towards the evening and the darkness would follow soon after.

‘
You do not have a face that says nothing,’ she retorted. ‘You have a face that tells me that something is worrying you but you do not wish to tell me because you are trying to spare me undue concern.’

‘
I have a face that says all
that
?’ He stared at her.

‘
Oh yes,’ she smirked and added, ‘You cannot hide anything from me.’

‘
I will remember that if we are ever married,’ Aeron retorted uncertain whether he liked being read so well.

‘
You had better,’ she winked playfully but her tone soon became sober once again. ‘So what is it you do not wish to tell me?'

‘
There is an ever growing threat in my mind,’ Aeron confessed. ‘I can feel it pressing against us. It is coming from the Gahara.’

Melia
stiffened immediately, her gaze following his own to rest on the plateau range in the distance. ‘I know of what you speak. I feel it too.’

‘
You do?’ He looked at her.

‘
Not in the way you do,’ she clarified quickly. ‘Since Tor Iolan I have felt the pull of something whenever I am close to the places my mother might have been. It is the same as when I went into the dungeons and was drawn to her cell. She is trying to speak to me. I can feel it.’

‘
It is not merely that which concerns me Melia,’ Aeron continued. ‘Until Tor Iolan, I had not given much thought about certain accounts that have come from these lands since the end of the Shadow War. However after your revelation that a mage may have travelled to these part, I am revisiting those reports and looking upon them in a new light.’

‘
Of what do you speak?’ She asked.

‘
Since the war, the goblins have taken refuge in the canyons that surround us. What puzzles me is why have they not returned to their former home? The Gahara Plateau is the perfect ground for them and yet they do not go there. If anything they appear to be avoiding it. It was thought that perhaps the krisadors numbers have grown so many that it was no longer safe for the goblins but the goblins are a canny race.  Could the numbers of krisadors be that much of an obstacle to them?’

Aeron had a point and
she too, wondered if there was not something else residing in the Gahara that was keeping them away?

Could it be the
Mage who used his magic on her mother and the other River Daughters? What exactly had he done to them that he needed to spirit them away like thieves in the night? How had he become so corrupted that he was no better than Balfure or his Disciples? Melia was almost afraid to voice her thoughts but in the end decided she needed to tell Aeron of them. He was risking his life to help her and he knew a great deal more about mages than she did. Perhaps together, they might shed some light on what had happened at Tor Iolan.

‘
Aeron, what do you know of Balfure?’

Aeron
looked at her sharply. So much had already been said about the Shadow Lord and truth be told, some of the accounts were more myth than fact so he understood the question if not the timing of it.

Balfure had been such a big part of their lives these many years that he forgot that not everyone knew the truth about him. No doubt in years to come, Balfure’s legend would see many distortions to his tale but Aeron was long lived enough to remember the facts of it.
Melia’s people had only seen the facade that Balfure had presented to them to gain their loyalty. Indeed, he had deceived the Eastern Sphere into thinking he was a god and a kind one at that.

‘
Before his corruption, he was a
seraf
, a trusted vassal of the Celestials Gods. The mages are serafs too. Balfure was seraf to Maelog when Maelog was still one of the Celestials. When Mael broke with them, Balfure joined him and was the first of Mael's Dark Three during the Primordial Wars. Following him were Syphia and then Attean.’

‘
The Dark Elf,’ Melia nodded in recognition, having heard the tale of Arianne’s uncle who was disowned by his family when he became swayed by Mael’s promises to rule. ‘What changed Balfure? Was it simply loyalty to Mael that caused him to fall into darkness?’

‘
Surprisingly no,’ Aeron continued. ‘Tamsyn does not like to speak of it much but he does tell us that Balfure did not set out to rule. He wanted Avalyne to remain untouched. He believed the world the Creator made was perfect enough without the ruin that elf, man and dwarf would bring. Initially he joined Mael to vanquish the elves from Avalyne so it could be returned it to its former glory. Of course as the power corrupted him, what noble purpose he intended to achieve was lost to his ambitions. Before the Celestial Gods banished Mael, Balfure disappeared into the Burning Plains, along with anyone who wished to join him. Some of these were the Disciples.’

‘
Such noble intentions twisted so terribly,’ Melia shook her head, thinking that Balfure was not the only seraf who was susceptible to this particular conceit.

‘
I do not think Tamsyn could even comprehend it,’ Aeron said sadly. ‘Balfure was one of his own and I think it was an affront to all the serafs that one of them could be turned so irrevocably. I think there is a moment when one must know what line not to cross and sadly for Balfure, he did not see it until it was far behind him. ‘

‘
They say that he created the Berserkers, that he bred men and goblins. Is that true?’

‘
I am afraid so,’ Aeron nodded, grimacing at the horror of it. ‘They said that he took prisoners of both races and use dark craft to create a new beast. I suppose that it was the only way left to him after Syphia was supposedly killed.’

Melia winced and could see now how
the Mage they were seeking in Tor Iolan fell into the same trap. While Balfure wanted to create a new type of soldier for his armies, this Mage had sought to create perfection. The hubris of believing himself to be the equal of the Creator in such craft had brought him to the same ruin.

‘
Prince, I have always known that when I found my mother, she would not be dead. I knew this with utter certainty because in my dreams I feel her life. I was convinced that she was being held against her will and now that I know what has transpired in Tor Iolan, I understand what has befallen her.’

Aeron
saw Melia's eyes fill with emotion and understood that the realisation was still hard for her to accept, that finding her mother would not be an accomplishment but rather a terrible tragedy waiting to unfold. Astride his horse next to hers, Aeron reached for her hand and squeezed it tight. ‘Tell me,’ he coaxed gently. ‘What do you understand?’

‘
The Mage wanted to create something better than elves and men. He wanted to be just like the Creator. I think Balfure learned of what this Mage intended to do and tricked him into fashioning something that has not walked the world before. I think that whatever he sought to create, he did so using my mother and the other River Daughters to do it.’

The enormity of what Melia was
suggesting horrified Aeron intensely for it was more than just abomination, it was twisted and evil in a way that sent a cold chill running his entire being. Sprites and serafs, like the Celestials were children of the Creator, intensely powerful with their power linked to the many aspects of the world, the sea, the earth, the wind and air. Each played a part in the Cosmic Thread the Creator had used to weave the Universe.

What did it mean
when one strand of that tapestry was corrupted?

‘
You think that the Mage has turned your mother into a creature of darkness?’

‘
Creature yes,’ Melia nodded. ‘Darkness, I do not know. I only saw that it was against their will that they were turned into whatever the Mage intended and after that he was afraid of their power. At first opportunity, he took them from Tor Iolan to prevent Balfure from unleashing them upon his enemies.’

‘
If that is so,’ Aeron questioned, ‘where have they been all this time?’

Melia shook her head and was about to answer when suddenly
Aeron lurched towards her from his saddle. He toppled them over to land on the rocky ground with a heavy thud. Melia was about to demand what he was about when her horse reared up on its hind quarters, braying in pain at the arrow that was now lodged in its neck. She had just enough time to register the blood when another arrow struck again, causing the animal to buck with pain once more.  Aeron's  horse, sniffing the blood began to stamp its hooves in panic, wanting to bolt.

‘
Goblins!’ Aeron declared, recognizing the crude workmanship of the arrow shafts.

‘
Now?’ Melia exclaimed in confusion. It was still daylight! Then she realised that nightfall was not far away and if the goblins crippled or kill their horses, they would be forced to escape the Gorge on foot. They could not hope to get far enough away before the goblins tracked hem down probably in large numbers.

Melia's
horse, a grey mare, took the worst of the goblins' marksmanship. By now the animal had dropped to its haunches and was seconds away from succumbing completely to her injuries. Wasting no time, Aeron grabbed Melia's hand and pulled her towards his horse, aware that their survival rested in putting as much distance between themselves and the goblins who were carrying out their assault from the safety of the fissures and cracks in the canyon walls.