Chapter Nineteen
Nara worried ceaselessly about her family, desperately hoping they were safe and unharmed by the wretched king. Tears pricked her eyes, blurring her sight as she rode the steed to its maximum strength and speed, heading north with dust and grass visible in their trail under the afternoon sun. Grass hills stretched endlessly ahead and behind them. She and the elves had taken to the road soon after the elves had acquired what had brought them to Vessener in the first place. They rode through the night and day straight, only stopping less than twenty minutes to replenish the horses with water. Three days to be exact has she been without proper sleep. Her face paled from lack of sleep. It didn’t seem to be the same for her three companions, their faces were alive with color and vitality, nothing to indicate they haven’t slept either. Like their riders, the strange horses showed no sign of slowing down. The elves rode furiously, tearing the grasslands and hills, eager to put a great distance between them and Murisa. Home, the word echoed in her mind without rest as the faces of her mother, father and Ingrid flashed in her eyes. Their lives depend on you a voice inside her reminded her. What about mine? She thought bitterly. Wasn’t her own life significant too? Enough with the sentiment! She reprimanded, feeling ashamed of herself to entertain such selfish thoughts in the first place. She cared for her family. She would do anything for them.
Fatigue had her trailing behind the three strangers who she had not exchanged a word with since leaving the capital. Murmuring words of encouragement, Nara consoled Lucky and her distressed conscious. She was so far from home. Ahead, the land erected to a dense forest, the trees swallowing the elves to be seen. Behind the forest border lay the elven lands.
When Nara reached the edge of the forest, she dislodged. A sharp pain spread through her thighs, her muscles sore from riding. She stared at the woods. No one dared to come so far to the immortal’s borders of Forod. Stories from villagers who lived at the edges of the kingdoms and near distant border warned and scared them with just enough tales of all humans who risked coming this far never came back. In a rare occasion, only the wandering human's remains were found, but most of the time the bodies were never recovered. Just because elves did not slaughter them openly, that didn’t mean they had stopped.
What are they up to? Planning to kill her in there? The thoughts skittered through her mind, spiking the sense of dread in her a hundred folds. Nara shoved the thoughts away. She drew the dagger up and gripped it tight and close. The forest was eerily quiet despite chirping sound of birds, and the faint breeze whispering through the leaves.
Her senses fully alert, Nara cautiously waded through the trees, her stiff limbs protesting. The trees and grass were green against her dirty shoes and clothes, it did not crunch under her steps, the grass was fresh as if well fed by constant rain. It contrasted to the long hairy pale grass she left Lucky eating hungrily outside the parameters of the forest. The late afternoon sunlight slithered through the branches and cast a warmness over the wildflowers and area around. Fresh air filled and purified her lungs and cooled her skin.
Still, her stomach clenched, trepidation skittering down her spine. Her heart drummed to a perilous beat as the hair on the back of her neck erected to the invisible blanket rubbing softly on her and seemed to grow stronger and powerful with each step she took further into the forest. It was like a gentle, firm hand pulling at her. Magic
She exhaled slowly as she treaded much further, her ears and eyes keen on her surroundings, trying to catch any off sound apart from the insects’ and the leaves’ soft rustle. Nara grew still and paused as a faint sound of water caught her attention. She thought she heard flowing sound of a creek. She cautiously crept farther not wanting to trip over the jutted thick roots. Fear pounded through her blood with the growing echo of the sound. She scurried and hid quickly behind a large tall tree, its coarse bark pressing roughly on her back and head. She inclined her head slowly to the side and looked. There in the opening of branches, the elves were watering their steeds. The small opening didn’t allow her to see them clearly. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of Lucky who she’d clearly left grazing outside the skirts of the forest.
Calemir
Pulsing energy slithered over his skin and glide into his body. Distress hit him, intoxicating his senses. Calemir slipped silently through the trees and halted when he saw her shadow. He stood a couple of strides away from her and watched her. She was engrossed with his comrades that she was unaware of his presence. With her guard, down, was she seeking death?
Day’s sweat and dirt coated her skin and clothes, fatigue heavy on her face, far from their first encounter. Still… it was the unsuppressed distress, fear and rage that rolled off her and churned the blood in his veins and made him want to relish in it. She was a living chaos of emotions. Emotions taunted a part of him he fought control over every day. A nauseating chill broke through him. He felt like a bum who cut off drinking and was now tormented from the absence of alcohol and was tempted to have a single drop to end the agony.
What is she? Calemir eyes darkened, darkness long asleep from his past stirred, taunting him. Giving him a glimpse of how sweet it would be like to own her, have her at his mercy.
Keep her the two words slithered in his mind like a snake dancing from the cave to the tune of its charmer.
He wouldn’t stop until she was just an empty shell and even then, he would still want her. His features hardened, teeth gritted and abated the thoughts away. “You are slowing us down.” She drew a dagger he hadn’t seen on her as she twirled to face him. His steely gaze caused her throat to close.
“I’m sorry” Nara apologized. Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her eyes to him for a brief second before moving them to another spot on his face.
Mmmh…
Calemir took in her steady grip on the long dagger she held, she held it like she did the knife the other night, very confident to use it to the fullest.
“Once your horse is refreshed, head back to Vessener,” he told her curtly. Her brows knitted together, puzzled. “Do you not want to go back to your family?”
“I want to go back” her reply was said in pure honesty as if there was no other place she wanted to be.
“Then go as soon as possible” was his own response. When the dark ones got a whiff of her, she might not have a chance. He turned and started walking.
“What about the alliance, you agreed you will provide us with an army,” she asked.
“You promised us” her voice began to rise when he only stared at her as he also felt her anger did the same.
“The army would be provided” he finally answered, halting to look at her.
She really needed to leave.
Go now before it starts to rain.” He ordered her.