Page 49 of Dragon Sword

Sylvia threw up her arms. “Yeah, no need at all. We’re all just going to end up as monsters and tear each other apart.”

Kipu shook her head. “I say there is no need because I thoroughly studied all the documents in our possession. I have not forgotten a single word from those texts. Ask me what you wish to know and I will answer if I can.”

“Before we begin, did the king confide in you his fears?” Will asked her.

“He did not.”

“What did the text say about the great evil and the stones?”

She pursed her lips. “That the stones are the final resting place of the first king, but he does not lay there alone.”

My heart skipped a beat as I recalled the strange dark aura I’d felt around those stones. “What’s there with him?”

“The creature he defeated could not truly be destroyed by him and so he had its remains entombed with him to keep his people safe,” she revealed.

Will frowned. “Why were the citizens not told of this?”

“In those days the humans still frequented our city,” she pointed out as she set her sights on Sylvia and me. “The second king feared that should anyone learn the truth they would try to break the magic that bound together the dead king and his foe.”

“How is the creature bound?” Will wondered.

“And what exactly is it?” I chimed in.

“I can answer the first but the second is not possible because the king himself never knew the origins of his foe,” Kipu replied. “As for how it was bound, the king drew his own life force around the creature and entombed it to the site of their battle. The king died shortly after but his magic has remained. Unfortunately, his life force has diminished over these many thousands of years. The king who preceded His Highness attempted to strengthen the binding magic with his own life but it cost him dearly. He died young, leaving King Arva to take the throne at a young age himself.”

“Did it work?” I asked her.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Only so briefly as to delay the inevitable by a century or two. Whatever lies beneath those stones has grown too powerful. It will awaken soon.”

“The troubles have shown that it already has and the few chains that remain are all that keep the whole country from being consumed by its darkness,” Will pointed out.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Sylvia spoke up as she stalked over to the pile of armor. She yanked out the leather bag and slung it over her shoulder before she turned to us. “Let’s deal with this thing and maybe Steve will be alright again.”

Kipu scoffed at her. “The first king had great spiritual magic and yet he could not destroy the creature. How do you expect to do better than him?”

Sylvia smirked at the old elf and patted the bulge in the bag. “He wasn’t the only one with tricks.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us about the battle and the stones?” Will asked our hostess.

Kipu furrowed her brow. “There was little else among the documents. Few elves who partook in the battle survived and only one was a scribe. Due to the attack on the archives by the eagles many centuries ago, much of his writings have survived only in fragments.” She paused and furrowed her brow. “I do not know if this is any help to you, but there was a small passage written in one of the margins concerning the entrapment of the monster. It mentioned that ‘the watcher on high holds the bells of light which reflect the pure heart.’”

That’s when shouts came from outside the room.

CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE

Will jumpedto his feet and rushed to the door which he flung open. I followed on his heels and the two of us hit the balcony at almost the same moment. The shouts had become screams as people scrambled into the building. Many looked over their shoulders and all had an expression of terror on their faces.

Kipu joined us at the railing and grasped the bar to frown down into the lobby where her assistant was trying to control the mob. “What is going on?”

The young elf maiden was trying to travel upstream in a flood of terrified elves. “I do not know!”

“Monsters!” one of the panicked people shouted. “There are monsters out there!”

Will pursed his lips and rushed down the balcony to the front where glass windows looked out on the streets. Chaos and anarchy reigned supreme as elves dashed hither and thither trying to escape a swarm of bugs that blanketed the skies. The tiny gnat-like creatures flocked together in black bands that descended on any hapless elf. The citizen was bitten and stung, and their bodies were left with hideous black welts. Those wounds looked like the early stages of the disease.

Sylvia hurried over to us and her eyes widened. “What the hell is happening?”

“Our foes are making their first move,” Will replied as he looked over his shoulder at Kipu. “Bring them all inside! They can’t get bitten by those bugs!”

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