“Well I guess I don’t have to wonder on what the bats eat, do I? I suppose you eat the bats.” Could that even be possible? An eco-system of two, each feeding off of each other? That just doesn’t seem possible. There was something more here than she could see right off hand. Bats feeding off of lokai who feed off of the bats, it wasn’t sustainable and one would eventually eliminate or overwhelm the others numbers. That is until they died of starvation and the remnant of the other begin to breed, a vicious cycle of life and death that neither could escape.

  She slung the pack over her neck and drew her sword just as the first of them lunged at her. She slashed down and out, cutting the head off of a medium-sized female. She knew it was a female as they were the more aggressive ones when it came to lokai and males never grew past a certain size. Another leaped at her followed by another and she became hard pressed to keep the stupid beasts from overwhelming her.

  The snarls of many more of the serpent things could be heard from a darkened hall or entry toward the back of the chamber.

  She spun out in a flurry of blades, her sword flashing low and dispatching those who lunged in reaction to her attack as her dagger stayed close in to protect her body.

  Bats were suddenly swooping down from the ceiling and into the amassed lokai and she broke into a high stepped run, away from the feeding mass. She broke into a clear hallway, the only thing between her and the balustrades that lined the atrium. She sheathed her blades and pulled the harness out from a satchel and struggled into it as she ran, a herd of the slithering carnivores on her trail with giant bats swooping in on selected ones.

  “Nigel!” she yelled as she leaped off the top of the balustrade and out into the open air still trying to get the harness tied before the aerial caught up to her or…she really didn’t know what more than likely she would plunge to her death. A surprisingly better option than being gnawed to death by lokai. She trusted the aerial for some reason, or at least she had, but she seemed to be falling for quite some time now, the balconies flipping by quite rapidly.

  She looked toward the floor that was rushing toward her and she cursed herself for allowing the aerial to get the better of her. This was his plan all along. Get her so wrapped up in her own head that she throws herself off of the highest balcony because she decided to trust an aerial…real nice.

  I am such a fricking idiot, Juil thought as she watched the fountain below her getting larger with every passing second.

  “I’m sorry,” she said to the wind, hoping that somehow her family and whoever else her death would let down would hear it. She closed her eyes and began to scream somehow thinking that would make it somewhat better, maybe.

  She opened her eyes and looked down at the fountain wondering why her head hadn’t yet popped like a grape on the concrete monument, her blood flowing freely into the spouts of water spitting out of puffed cherub cheeks. Then it dawned on her that the fountain wasn’t getting bigger, well it was, but not nearly as fast.

  Juil looked up and saw a worm’s eye view of Nigel’s body with his wings spread wide as he slowly lowered her to the floor. It wasn’t until she was released by the aerial that it dawned upon her that the fountain was flowing with crisp clean water.

  “Oh my…water,” she said and started to run the last few yards to the cherub faces. She leapt with the intent of landing in the lower basin when claw like feet grabbed her from behind and lifted her over the fountain and down on to the ground.

  “What are you doing? It’s water and I want to clean up.”

  “Not there you don’t.”

  “Oh, is the water bad?”

  “No, it’s perfect, clean fresh and cool.”

  “So…why can’t I use it?” Juil asked confused.

  “Because it’s the only drinking water in here, you dolt. I am not going to be able to drink it after you wallow your filth through it,” Nigel said as if she was the biggest idiot the world had ever seen.

  “Well, drink…then I will clean up.”

  “No, this is the drinking water for everything that lives in this hell.”

  “There is just you and I here.”

  No, there are bats and goblins as well as the lokai, look…you can’t bathe here and that is final. So, fill your skin and drink your fill and then we can go. Get us out of here and I promise to drop you into the middle of the first lake we come to.”

  “Alright, alright. I’ll just continue to wallow in my own stench.”

  “Good, you felt a little heavier, did you grab a bat?”

  “No, they were…too cute. I grabbed a lokai instead.”

  “A lokai? Nasty beasts.”

  “Aye, which makes them perfect for rune magic.”

  “I can’t believe rune magic still exists, don’t you people ever evolve?”

  * * *

  Nigel had brought them to a portico that was wide and open so that she could draw out a rune large enough to do what they needed it to do. She looked over the edge out at the structure of where she stood.

  “Is something bothering you?” Nigel asked, careful not to show too much concern in his voice.

  “No, well…this place. This place is all wrong, yet so beautiful. I am surprised by the fact that we haven’t been attacked by anything.”

  “That’s only because you befriended the only one dangerous enough to hurt you in here. There is nothing else down here except me; a few goblins, some bats, and the lokai and we’re all trapped with nowhere to go,” Nigel said in a matter of fact tone.

  “It’s beautiful and terrifying all at once.”

  “Yes, it is…now get us the fuck out of here.”

  “Aye, aye cap’n,” she said and started to pace out the area she needed for the rune.

  It was hours later when they stood up and looked at her creation, double checking the angles as well as the crispness of the lines, both interior and exterior, praying that she had it right.

  “You have to be fucking kidding me, this isn’t going to work.”

  “You don’t have to be so foul mouthed all of the time, have a little faith. I’m pretty good at this you know,” Juil replied.

  “Sure; sure, that’s why it took you six hours to draw it out. You do realize that is like three days in the real world,” Nigel said

  “More like two and a half as far as I can figure.”

  “Either way, time is of essence here.”

  “Time is of essence? That doesn’t even make sense,” Juil said, leaving no doubt by her tone that she was about fed up with his whining.

  “What are you talking about, it is a very common saying among civilized peoples.”

  “Peoples? People is already plural, fool.”

  “Oh, for fucks sake, just get back to your rune scribbles and get us out of here, would you? The intellect is being sucked from my body every second that we are here.”

  “Well, it’s done…I guess,” Juil said, hesitating.

  “Done…you guess? Bloody hell. We’re both going to die.”

  “Would you please shut up?”

  “Okay, okay, what’s next then, champ? Do we chant or burn incense or dance naked in the moonlight?”

  “Oh, quit being an ass. We, ahhhh, we—”

  “You know, don’t you?” Nigel pressed.

  “Of course I know. There is an incantation, a—”

  “Incantation, isn’t that a chant?”

  “Yes… sort of,” she replied meekly, not even wanting to tell him the next step.

  “Then what,” he pressed, somehow knowing her answer and waiting to verbally pounce on her.

  “Well…we need some, smoke.”

  “Chants and incense, bloody hell, when do you sacrifice that poor beasty in your pouch? We are never going to get out of here are we? I can’t fucking believe this. Give a trollop a piece of charcoal and smoke and she will open an inter dimensional portal for you.”

  “An inter dem…what?”

  “Oh bloody hell.” Nigel slapped his hand to his forehead and shook it in slowed exasperation.

  30

  War

  The stables were empty by the time Juin got there and he could already hear the lumbering steps of the trolls behind him. Molly, however, waited calmly knowing that her bond mate would be there. His jump and mount was so smooth and predicted by the horse that she was moving into the woods the very second that he hit her saddle.

  The trees were thick around this part of the Spires but Juin knew the trails well. Probably not as well as one who had grown up here, but better than his adversaries did. His one issue being that he was exiting the western side of the city and he had to loop around to the east in order to meet with the kings who would more than likely be under attack by the time he got there.

  Juin came upon the muridai vanguard as it tried to overwhelm a group of elves left to defend the escape of the larger force in hopes that they would have time to set up some sort of the defense. They ran toward the north, which offered a lot of open ground until they came to the sheer wall. Juin knew that this was where they would set up the defense as there were small, easily defendable channels that led back into the glacier that had existed for thousands of years. This was not a long-term solution and in Juin’s opinion, only staved off the inevitable for a little longer. The facts were that the entirety of the elven royal houses were going to be trapped within mile high walls of ice by a vastly larger force. But there truly was no other option to defend such a large force here without holding Pine Hold itself.

  He rode Molly up on to a rise where there were already sprints raining poisoned barbs down on to the trolls and muridai as they attacked but by no means enough of the little guys to do much good. Juin wanted to stay and fight with them, but his arrows were limited in number and the mass of attackers just seemed to grow. He also felt the urge to rush in and join with his father and those who would be setting up defenses at the sheer walls of ice, but he knew that wouldn’t affect things one way or the other.

  For the first time in his life the elf was at a loss and had no idea which was the right decision when a familiar voice spoke at his shoulder.

  “I’m not thinking that they have made the best choice in where to set up their defense.” Juin turned to see Bobbick, the ranger from Riverhouse at his side.

  “We waited for you to get out,” the dwarf said, answering his unasked question. “I am aware of what is to the north of us and I am loathe to risk my apprentices in there. Sorry, that may sound like cowardice to you, but these boys are my responsibility so we are going to have to try to do something from out here. The other rangers have opted to go with yer da, but that was because I promised to make sure that help got here. What is it you plan to do, young elf?”

  “I don’t…I haven’t decided yet,” Juin said as an inkling of a plan started to creep into his mind.

  “Well, you can stay here and harry them as they attack your kin, there are stragglers in the wood and some small groups coming you could recruit. Or you could probably still get to your da on your own for an hour or so before you’re cut off completely. It seems that your choices are limited from where I can see.”

  “Yeah, I know that it is looking pretty bleak right about now, but there is something else that I can look into, but if it fails…”

  “If it fails, what?”

  “If it fails, they will all die and I will be branded as a coward who let the entire elven royal line die,” Juin said.

  “Foolishness!” Bobbick spat. “You are no more capable of cowardice than any I have ever met. What is your plan?”

  Juin turned to the dwarf because he wanted to see his reaction and just how ludicrous his plan might be.

  “The breeds.” Two words, and those two simple words raised the eyebrows of the dwarf.

  “The breeds? You are as likely to get them to come to your aid as you are to get the aerials fighting alongside of you.”

  “I know. Juil and I met with some of them early spring on our way out west, so we’re still on speaking terms at least. I can’t leave them though. Even if I have to fight from the tops of the glaciers, I have to stay with my people.”

  “Won’t they be responding to the horns and signal fires?” Bobbick asked suspecting that he knew the answer.

  “No, and they won’t be responding to any sprints either. They don’t consider themselves to be a part of the world’s society and have stuck to themselves as their own people, separate from the rest of the world. Somebody has to convince them that it is important that we come together and kill this infestation. I hate to ask you this, I mean you have done so much already, but I don’t have anyone else.” Juin’s tone was almost pleading, Bobbick didn’t make him beg.

  “Aye, we’ll go. I don’t know if we can convince em, but we’ll try.”

  “Thank you, Bobbick, you’re a good man.”

  “As are you, young elf.”

  Juin left the dwarf and his rangers checking their kit before they headed north into the most rugged terrains of the Spires that rounded the inland sea where the breeds have set up their home.

  He trotted up to high ground so that he could survey the situation. They had made it through the narrow crevasses that allowed entrance into a large grassy area that spanned several miles, but then stopped at towering ice all around. Not an ideal place to run to, but with the advantage the muridai and trolls had they really had no other option.

  The ice wall sketched a shallow bowl where the elves dug in to prevent the ice walls from being dragged down on top of them. The smaller area helped, but would still require a hundred fighters under constant siege and it was at least two days before the reinforcements from Riverhouse would get here. If they got here at all.

  The whole situation was feeling way too planned out and Juin knew he was going to have to turn that tide or things were going to float south in a hurry.

  * * *

  Bobbick didn’t relish the task set before him, but he knew it must be done. He and his apprentices had worked hard over the last few weeks, but they were well fed and rested so they headed north at a good pace for two days before the crested a long sharp ridge. A full moon made the night a gray scape of revealing shadows upon the snowy ground.

  The way was an easy go for the first several miles until they rode the rams up the backside of a steep rise that Bobbick, who was a seasoned Ranger in the Spires, knew to end at a clear drop off over a thousand feet into the violent white foam of turbulent water at the bottom of the gorge. An old river from the time of the reshaping frothed the entire distance to the North Sea. They had reached the spine in just over two days of hard riding. They would rest before they took the steep trail in the light of day.

  Time was critical so they reduced their breakfast down to rice cakes and reheated coffee. They crested the rise an hour after waking, the view drawing an audible gasp from the apprenticed rangers. The gorge was a feature that people usually would think of as a narrow band split through a mountain face or cut out of a field where the land suddenly drops from a washout.

  The Spires, as devastating as they were, had been created in much the same way as most geological occurrences on earth were created. Land mass breaks and shifts throughout the planet, land masses collide forming mountains and barriers, new countries grow, always have and always will. As a ranger, Bobbick was well versed in the geological as well as the cultural histories of the area that he ranged. He had been to Follock as well as Nevereiche, which is the land within the gorge that the breeds had claimed as their own.

  “During the last continental drift a land mass slammed into the northern spire affecting the land all of the way to Riverhouse where the solid exposed bedrock acted as the anvil for the hammer’s blow. The result was the sharp jagged mountain range referred to as the Bone Spires. Constant expansion from freezing seas as well as quakes and volcanoes made it into the youngest but deadliest range known to the Five,” Bobbick said, taking advantage of their wonder at the view to instruct his apprentices.

  “Look toward the upper most ridge and you will see how this whole gorge split off from the main body and slid back toward the sea. For your personal reference, keep in mind that it is still sliding toward the sea and casually bringing everything attached, with it.” They looked at him with disbelief.

  “Oh yes, everywhere the Spires are there is movement, this range is not fully developed and won’t have its true and final face for over a million years. Some believe it will eventually become a sheer-sided seawall that has flat farmland on top instead of the shallow beaches that we now have. Not right now, Willam, we have a long way to go and you can develop your questions and ask them tonight,” Bobbick said to the young dwarf who had held his hand up for a question.

  “Nevereiche’s southernmost border is right where you stand. This gorge opens out to a wide, temperate valley, kept warm by magma coming close to the surface and trade-winds from the sea which can have the opposite effect. The people are…they are called the breeds but in truth they are us, or at least our children.” He paused, almost wanting them to ask the questions that he had warned them away from, but then continued.

  “I won’t sully you with my own opinions and will instead let you form your own. A half days’ journey down this trail is the first village of the breeds called Youlost. Yes, they do have a sense of humor. I’ll lead, but keep your eyes on the trail, the view has proven to be a deadly distraction on more than one occasion,” Bobbick finished and the others could see why as a picturesque scene they never could have imagined unfolded before them.

  The ridges cut the peaks in a ragged half-bowl shape that swept down steeply, sometimes in even straight drops for thousands of feet. A spout of water that formed the river below shot out of the cliff face in an unending stream of clean glacier melt, covering the cliff faces on either side, layering them with a thick coating of ice and water. A constant roar consumed the air around them. The trail cut back behind some small peaks right where the ice would have covered the path. The only real danger that they faced was distraction from all there was to see. It was like a lost world within the gorge and into the valley beyond with rock formations of the like none of them had ever seen and trees that looked as if they grew nowhere else. Even the grass on the plains below seemed to be a paler shade of green than what was typical for grazed grass.