Page 84 of A Rising Hope

His long, charcoaled hair was braided with intricate strands around the thorny metal crown he wore. He was dressed in armor, formed in a way I had never seen before, as if made out of magic; the threads looked like metal and yet they were fabric. An illusion of armor, and yet something told me it was much more durable than whatever metal and leather scraps we wore.

Whatever battalion commanders that could still stand, stood beside me, injured, battered and bruised, but they stood keeping their heads up.

And Zora . . . Zora was nowhere to be fucking found. A thought that disemboweled me within. I had to find her. She’d been in my arms and she had been in my sight through the end of the battle. Yet when we reached this abandoned chateau to take shelter and recuperate for the night, the elves approached me, and she slipped away.

With a mix of disdain and curiosity, the Elf King harshly scanned the bleak room of the abandoned estate we had overtaken as a refuge for the wounded to recover.

Not knowing much of elvish magic, I kept my skills hidden, not risking a full jump, instead cautiously observing the blue iridescent light twinkle around him.

The King tilted his head to the side like an animal, the movements so unnatural. His abnormally bright turquoise eyes shifted as he assessed each of my battalion commanders, like a predator assessing whether we’d be prey or a threat to him.

The air was tense and heavy, stuck in my lungs as I took measured breaths.

After a silence that seemed to last an eternity, the King reached to his side, near his heart. The fabric shimmered like an unseen shield as he pulled out a small envelope.

My commanders shifted on their feet, unsettled by the motion, but I stood still, ensuring not even a blink was out of line.

There was no point in this charade. There was no hiding the truth that we were entirely at their mercy. No, our pride had died on the same battlefields alongside our armies.

Now I stood still, forcing perfection because it was the only comfort I could provide to my thrashing heart.

The King passed the envelope to the tall elvish soldier that stood to the right of him.

The ferocious warrior’s long pointed nails scraped the paper. He scowled, approaching us, disgusted at our mere existence. But obliging with the King’s silent request, he handed off the letter to me.

I clenched my teeth, fighting pain and nausea, forcing my disheveled fingers to move as I opened the familiar letter, recognizing Gideon’s broken black seal on the back of it.

But the writing, no, the writing, was definitely not his.

Though I couldn’t understand the words written, I knew exactly who had written the letter. And so did the King. His haunting eyes met mine, his thin-lipped mouth moved as he asked in a broken language resembling ours.

“Finnleah? Where haathh she?” Like a blade, his voice cut through the eerie quietness.

“Finnleah is not here,” I answered, uncertain if such truth would bring the wrath of the elves upon us. “She is gone, but I can pass a message.”

The King released a sigh full of displeasure, and I knew he understood me well enough.

“Alive she haaathh so?” he questioned.

“Yes.” I gave him a tight nod. Whether my words were a lie or a truth, I didn’t want to question it.

He reached for the long silver chain around his neck, pulling a green eye shaped stone from underneath his armor.

I had seen that amulet before. Finn wore it on every occasion she could.

“My sister’s duety and her deabt paid has been. Her wissh fulfilled,” he declared with his mighty voice in a broken tongue, but everyone around understood then.

A life debt had been paid in full.

He gave another scrutinizing look to my broken soldiers and to me, not hiding his repulsion at our mangled bodies.

Whatever Finn had written in that letter, whatever that necklace meant to him, it was bigger than the ancient quarrel lingering for thousands of years between Elves and Destroyers.

Because they had come, and they had saved us.

The muscle in my temple twitched.

How did they cross the border undetected?My mind begged the question. One that made my thoughts pause more than once.

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