“That’s big enough to fly in,” Juil said and indicated the large atrium area.

  “I do fly out there every chance I get, but I was brought here during that war and it was already here. This is not Antre Clocher. I was involved in the planning of the attack on the evil kingdom and we could access the main city through the air. You see if we can’t fly there, we’re not going. We know our strength and when you own the air you own the surface and we have no need to go underground.” He paused as if he was thinking through the conversation, then he looked at her earnestly.

  “You say we won huh? Yes!” he said with a fist pump into the air. “Those dirty bastards deserved it. I’m glad their cursed city was destroyed.”

  “Not everyone agrees with you. That incident was the deciding factor for the humans and gnomes to join in, otherwise we would all be aerial slaves. So, you won that battle but that battle determined that you would lose the war, if that makes sense,” Juil said enjoying the banter. She knew that she had to get out of there but in order to do that she needed information and help. Nigel was both.

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore, all I know is that this is definitely not Antre Clocher, this place is much older and I think that it had a much darker presence in the world than people from either one of our times periods could imagine. The architecture and craftsmanship are beyond compare yet it is still nothing more than a tomb.”

  “For us anyways,” Juil said.

  “Yes, definitely for us but I think even more so for them. Why would someone build a kingdom within a mountain? They deny themselves the sun and fodder that only the fresh clean world of the open air can give.”

  “Yeah, it is very strange, why would a whole civilization bury itself in here regardless of how magnificent it is?” Juil joined in his speculation.

  “What did they hide from and how long ago did their ghosts materialize and claim them all.” Nigel looked at her intently, his eyes pierced through hers as if searching for the answer within.

  “Are you sure that they all died at once?” Juil asked and he nodded his head as a thoughtful sneer crossed his countenance and Juil cocked her head slightly. At first, she thought the sneer was directed toward her but then she realized it was just his face screwed up in concentration. He slowly nodded his head before speaking.

  “Yah, the signs all speak of a bloody battle and by the piles of bones in a couple of the chambers the battle was very one sided. It was brutal and I will show you the courtyard where the tortures were performed. They were very creative, even by aerial standards if I do say so. However, these were all humans. Both the aggressors and the defenders were of the same race and probably lived here together for years before they turned upon each other.”

  “Ah yeah, I think that I will pass on that one.”

  “Really,” he replied and then suddenly sat up straight. “I know what you want to see.” He stood. “Come with me, you’re going to enjoy this, or possibly you won’t but you still have to see it.”

  “What, where are we going?” Juil asked as she stood and followed him to the balustrades looking over the atrium.

  “We’re going up there,” Nigel said and pointed toward the far corner of the atrium over ten stories up.

  “That is going to take me a week to get there, Nigel, especially since I don’t know how these hallways work.”

  “A week? That’s pathetic.” He paused as if he was thinking of something. “Wait here,” he said before jumping into the atrium and spreading his wings wide. He hovered for a bit looking at the elf whom he was leaving alone for however long his errand would take.

  “Get your gear ready, we are going to move up into the apartment areas. The view is better and there are a few more resources as well as where most of the edibles are grown.” With that he turned with a great soaring dive that was meant to give him momentum before turning almost straight up and beating his massive wings to gain altitude. She watched until the distance was too great and he disappeared into a tiny pin prick before being covered over by the gloom.

  Juil already had her pack together so she waited as she stared off into the distance wondering how many of these courtyard type atriums there were. The hopelessness of her situation started to slip in. She was supposed to be out with her soldiers fighting against the foul folk who wish to do nothing but destroy and desecrate all that is beautiful.

  How much time has passed for Juin and Ice King? Five days, ten? Do they think that I am dead? There has to be a way out of here, the cause is much too important. Juil thought about the young lokai that were trapped in the satchel mounted to Ice King’s flank. They were probably dead by now, if not killed by Drick’s discovery of them or simple suffocation inside the satchel but she wouldn’t know, she may never know. She didn’t even know why she cared, she only collected them to use their blood in strengthening the runes, so they were going to die anyway. But…she did care, she cared because she knew that it was better to die by the blade than to slowly suffocate.

  The flapping of huge wings snapped her from her reverie and she looked up to see Nigel returning with something attached to his chest.

  “I haven’t used this in a couple of years but it should still be good,” the man said as if it was the answer to all of their problems.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a harness, now hop up here and I will strap you in. We usually use it for carrying off victims or livestock so it should support a willowy elf quite nicely.”

  “I’m not willowy. I am a warrior, not some pagan dancer.”

  “Oh shut up, now put the saddle between your legs and wrap these around your shoulders…there we go.”

  “You’re going to take me flying?” Juil said, not able to believe this was happening. To fly like an aerial, who wouldn’t dream of such a thing.

  “Of course, I can’t be waiting for you to crawl all over this stinking hole. We have things to do and places to go if you are ever going to find a way out of here for us. Now stand up on the balustrades and hold this handle straight up in the air and don’t move it once it is in place,” he instructed her and then stood back to see how she was positioned. “No, more like this,” he said and jumped up beside her. He adjusted her pose and said softly into her ear.

  “Can you hold this position no matter what?”

  She nodded.

  “Good, prove it,” he said before pushing her off the top of the rail and out into the open air where she soared downward at an alarming rate of speed. She couldn’t help but scream, but she held her position firm. Seconds before her body became a pile of shattered bones and burst flesh, she felt her direction change and she was swept along the atrium mere inches above the floor.

  Juil continued to scream but it had changed from one of absolute terror to one of exhilaration for a sensation that she could have never imagined. The weightlessness of flight disrupted only by the rush of wind through her ears and the flapping of giant wings. Her screams were still there as she gasped at the excitement but no sound came out. She saw pillars and statues slide past them until the opposing balustrades on the second level started to fill her vision, looming closer every second until she once again thought they were going to crash. She screamed again and they suddenly cut to the right as if they had hit an air current and she felt them glide smoothly back out into the center, her harness swinging her out low and behind as the aerial spiraled upward. He soared like an eagle swooping up and around the atrium to gradually gain height with each rotation and she could hear him laughing at her terror.

  She looked up at him only to see the huge, thick-skinned, taloned feet clutching the bar that supported her harness.

  “Quit messing with me, bird man!” she shouted.

  “Oh relax, ya pixie. I am using the air currents and your weight to get us up there. I could fly straight away, but I am afraid with your extra weight and my lack of conditioning that I would pull something and be forced to walk everywhere like you low born crawlers.”

  “Can you slow down?”

  “No! Just shut up and enjoy the view. You scream worse than a dwarf during a sky hockey match.”

  “Sky hockey? I don’t think I like the sound of that.”

  “Ha! Neither did the dwarfs. It was very competitive game so a lot of them were dropped but they were only dwarfs.”

  “I see we’re going to have to work on your public relations a bit if we ever get out of here. Dwarfs are good people.”

  “Good people? You say, good people? They are backstabbing little cretins who would cheat their own Grandmother for a gold piece.”

  “Yes, I have to admit that they are frugal, not to mention hell bent on getting the upper hand in a situation, but they are also the first to respond to trouble and help keep the north safe with their management of Riverhouse.”

  “I know nothing of this Riverhouse, nor do I know anything about these new dwarfs in which you speak so highly. Possibly they are no longer the manipulators that they once were.”

  “Well…that depends upon what your definition of manipulator is,” Juil said not wanting to lie because in truth the dwarfs were great manipulators but he didn’t need to know that, not yet anyway.

  “Oh please, shut up until we get there, now I have to focus. Flying isn’t like a walk in the park,” he said and then laughed at his joke. Juil was getting the impression that in his society they made fun of the walkers continuously as well as creatively.

  Finally, on the very top level of what she assumed was the north west corner of the atrium, Nigel gently set her down and landed beside her.

  “Now I want you to prepare yourself because what you are going to see is shocking and I don’t know if your experience will be good or bad.”

  “Okay,” Juil replied nervously. They entered into a long tight spiraled stairway that would be too steep for just anyone one to climb. Nigel himself walked at such an angle as to almost scrape his nose six or seven steps ahead of his feet. There was no handrail and the stairs themselves were worn from years of use leaving the edges chipped and curved. She watched the heels of his taloned feet as they trudged up the stairs, trying to pace herself so as not to get a talon in her face. Finally, after fifteen to twenty minutes of climbing they came to a landing that fronted a rough-hewn wooden door. Nigel worked a complicated latch and slowly opened the door into a round tower that opened to a chamber that was walled with windows.

  “Windows?” Juil asked in amazement. The last thing that she expected to see was open air windows in an underground kingdom. She wanted to rush over to one, but Nigel held her back.

  “These aren’t that kind of window, okay? If they were I would have flow out one of them a year and a half ago when I discovered them,” he said as the wind from the openings rippled his feathers and pulled at his hair. She smelled the cool breeze and detected a strong sulphuric scent. Slowly she walked over to one of the openings that was glowing with a red fiery light. Her eyes widened as she recognized what she was seeing, her home yet it no longer could be anyone’s home.

  Lilieack was…burning.

  13

  Paths

  On fire. The grand passageway that could be seen for miles as part of the southern view of the great elven kingdom pooled like lava as temperatures were so great that the minerals within the stone walls melted into puddles and granite puddled like a pond of oil. Juil could feel the heat as it pushed the hair back from her face and she could see what she thought were bodies floating amongst the molten rock, but she knew that couldn’t be. Organic material such as flesh and bone would turn instantly to ash in such an inferno. The city glowed white and brighter than the sun.

  She struggled to keep her cool, but it was beginning to overwhelm her. It was when she saw the crystal arboretum flowing as a river of shattered dissolving crystal that she broke down. So much life had been preserved there. Plants and trees that survived nowhere else in the world were now lost forever, the legendary elven botanist’s pride and joy, now a pile of ash. From the sea behind the city were giant gouts of steam blasting into the air as the molten rock hit the frigid water. Avenues glowed red and orange, their surface cracks displaying intense varieties of hues that would turn anything, even the densest stone to ash.

  Juil started to weep and surprisingly Nigel came over and put his arm around her shoulder.

  “Relax. I found out for sure just yesterday that it isn’t real,” he said softly and she turned to look at his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t toying with her. “Oh, I have always had my suspicions. Every time I came here I saw something different, and after a couple years they started to conflict with each other.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I am not artistic like most aerials are but I do have one skill that is exceptional, even by my own people’s standards.”

  “You’re kind of pompous,” Juil said as she wiped a tear from her eye, letting him keep his arm around her shoulder and maybe even leaning in a little bit.

  “You’re supposed to ask what my talent is,” Nigel protested.

  “No. I know you’re going to tell me no matter what, so why bother asking.”

  “Well…I don’t know that I want to tell you now since you’re being such a crawler about it.”

  “Okay, can’t help on the crawler part though, I was born a crawler so there isn’t much I can do about that.” Juil couldn’t help but laugh as her fears of her burning home had been eased. Nigel was like four or five guy friends that she had grown up with all wrapped into one. Adventurous, self-righteous, prideful, and oh so sarcastic that she couldn’t help but fall into a comfortable banter with him. She was nervous about falling into a pattern of trust, but she really felt that he was genuine. Oh, he had secrets, but his intents were not malicious, or at least she didn’t think so.

  “Fine then, you don’t need to know. So, I don’t need to tell you that I will never forget…this,” he said mischievously.

  “Holy crap, what was that…a code or hint? You never forget what?”

  “Everything. Nothing, ever. Never have…it can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing.”

  “Uh huh, I am sure that it is. That is quite a claim to fame there, Nigel. So what contradictions did you see that made you suspicious?”

  “Mainly people and time frames. For instance, over a year ago I saw my brother and his boys brutally murdered by a band of escaped elven slaves, the last remnants of a war that we handily won yet you now inform me that is not the case and we actually lost the war. As unlikely as it is, I believe you, for if we had won…well, let’s just say that you probably wouldn’t be here and you definitely wouldn’t be a princess.”

  Juil stepped back and looked at Nigel curiously. She didn’t remember having long conversations about her life with Nigel and she definitely never said she was a princess. Have I tipped the aerial off in some other way? How could he know that? He had mentioned it before also… hmmm.

  “When the witch told me I would be joined by a powerful princess, I never once thought it would be an elf. After all, only aerials can truly hold rank or position, or at least that’s how it was. The rest of you were there to serve, but when you arrived, I knew that something was amiss.”

  “Really? You consider all of the other races as inferior and simply here to serve you?”

  “Of course, we are the pinnacle of creation after all. Do you think a ruddy dwarf or those servile little imps you call sprints are on the same level as I, or even an elf for that matter. Elves at least know enough about hygiene to be allowed to work inside and in truth made very good chefs and chamber maids once you beat the uppity-ness out of them.” Nigel’s tone was so arrogant it enraged the young elf, her nails dug into her palms as she tried to stifle her anger. She wanted to rip into him so badly that she even took a step closer to him, he drew back slightly, his eyes sizing up her attitude.

  Arrogance? That wasn’t arrogance, it was petulance. He is messing with me again! This almost pissed her off even more, but then she realized how well it had distracted her from the horrible lie reflected within the window.

  “I once had a friend who was a lot like you, Nigel. His name was Carlito and we suspected that he was one of the legendary hobbits that no one has seen or heard from for thousands of years, though he would never admit it. He jerked my chain so many times I stopped believing anything he said, unless we were in a serious situation that is. However, what it took for us to truly be friends, was for me to stop taking him and everything around me so seriously,” she said and smiled. He drew back as if to start in again with more tales of the aerials greatness but Juil spoke first.

  “Thank you.”

  He relaxed and smiled back.

  “I believed that the horrors they forced on me were real for over a year. The witch would show me visuals that brought extreme joy of my sons and daughters breaking into the upper class through my endeavors and disappearance; I was almost happy to stay here, knowing that it was a part of their success. Then it would shift to visions of utter devastation that my heart wrenched. I saw the aerie of my birth crumbled into the sea and the wings hacked off of my father as he was raped by dwarves. I can’t even tell you what I saw happen to my mother and sisters who had been forced to watch as gnomes cannibalized my brother.”

  “But how could you even believe that if you had seen that you had won the war?” Juil asked, truly curious.

  “It all came over a series of time, I wanted to stop coming here but I couldn’t because of the…well, just be quiet and listen for a moment.”

  She did and it only took a second for her to hear it. A voice, high in pitch yet so softly toned it could almost be a part of the breeze. It flowed continuously through the cavernous tower, whose rough-hewn walls seemed to be carved by wind and time rather than pick and hammer.

  The sound started to grow around her wrapping her in a haze of melody, she searched the room to see where it was coming from, that was when she realized that this tower was a hollowed-out spire that was excavated as opposed to crafted with mortar and stone. Words were of a language she recognized but didn’t know and the woman’s resonance drew her deeper into the room. She passed by the window of the horror that was her city burning, still feeling the heat from the lava as it pulsed through the opening. In the next window she saw her brother Juin as he surveyed the death and destruction in Pine Hold and she knew that it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real. No one could commit a crime of such wanton slaughter. She looked anyways and noticed that Ice King and the Har Karoome were not with them, which would be accurate as they had pursued her and she felt a moment of doubt.