Chapter 1 –

I peered out my window. It was quickly nearing dusk; the sky was cast into brilliant different shades of orange, intermixed with faint rays of pink. Though it was still warm, I knew it would soon start to cool off, and people would begin to retreat inside to their cozy homes for the night. From where I looked out my window onto the street I could see families moving indoors, small clusters of them moving around.

Brightly colored birds were singing as they flew to their various nests, the happy laughter of the children out on the street. I knew that any animals that were not nocturnal would be heading back to their dens, nests and caves to their young. In the air I could smell the scent of rain which would probably fall later in the evening. The last thing I saw before going to sit on my bed was a group of human children passing through a doorway.

Houses were crumbling, and only about a hundred people lived here. The streets were dirt-covered, though once they were paved. The buildings here were old, very old, and all seemed the same. For instance, the one I was looking out of was made of wood, and could get quite drafty at times. The wind often came through the families there weren't all that large, generally two parents and two children at the most. Maybe in the bigger cities the families could be larger, but that was the largest I had seen. All the men and boys wore shorts and sleeved tops. All the girls, including me, as I wanted to blend in, either wore skirts, or simple dresses. I preferred to wear shorts, but that I could not do while I was there. I'd have stood out.

A group of human children were moving indoors as I turned and sat on my bed. I was no human.

In the orphanage I lived in, my room was small, crowded and had little free space. In one corner, opposite the old creaky door, there was a cracked mirror. The cracks ran across it in several places, making what looked like a crescent moon, though it was slightly oddly shaped. There was a hard lumpy mattress on an iron bed frame that I really hated. I knew there were much better beds in that place; I often chose to sleep on the floor. The cracked and faded floorboards were far more comfortable in comparison.

I resented living with all those humans. Of course, I had my reasons, since logically those days; elves would not have been caught dead in the human towns. About twenty perhaps, the numbers changed each year. Children came and went, never me. I made sure of that. I had learnt to get along with them, though only resentfully did I put in that effort. When I'd first gotten there, there had been times when I had lashed out at them, when they had picked on me.

Later though: after realizing that doing that was alienating me from them, I had to try harder to fit in with them. After a long time of not being talked to by anyone but the adults, I had decided to try and fit in a bit more. So when two twins had arrived at the orphanage and had grown up until about five years old, I had then made friends with them. Another pair of girls, one three, the other about four when I met her, had joined me as my friends.

Turning to face the old mirror while I sat on my bed, I smiled. The elf that looked back at me had golden blond hair, of which several strands fell across my blue eyes. Though I knew that elves were considered perfect, many of us weren't. My face was not yet as angular as those of the adults of my people the tips of my pointed ears were actually rounded off. No normal elf has rounded ears at the age I am now. That was one of the faults I had. Another fault I knew I had was that my eyes brightened every time I lied, so I could not ever lie convincingly. Luckily only elves knew about that, not these humans.

Though I was skinny, I knew that would not be an issue when it came to fighting. When it came to fighting, we all seemed to skinny to wield the weapons we chose, and I knew that I would be no exception. As I knew, being brought up by the elves as who I am meant to be, means that one day I may have to lead my people into battle.

Frequently I longed to be away from the humans that surrounded me. I did not belong there. Those people had such a dull, boring life, and I rather detested them. The humans were rather boring; all they ever seemed to do at my age was play. Whereas back in my old home, I knew that children my age would be learning to fight, some would learn the skills of the wyvern riders, and others would start to pursue things that interested them.

Being an elf in a human town, I do not let my ears be seen when I am amongst the humans. When I am alone in my room at night though, I always let my ears poke through my hair. If I had to interact with humans, my ears were always hidden, though I longed to not have had to do that. That was because I knew what I was, an elf among many humans. I'd rather to not hide my true identity, it's a nuisance. Also it had seemed to take a bit when I was younger to learn to hide my ears and not look different to anyone else.

If a human had seen me as an elf, it would not have been long before I would have found myself in the torturous grasp of the human king. Lindan Marcos had let the nation fall into ruin since he had begun to rule. He was tearing it apart, by continuing the war he had instigated against my people. He was being ruthless about how he ascertained his armies; I'd seen boys taken from the orphanage by the soldiers. When they'd come, I'd had to hide, and quickly. They would have recognized me for what I was. Of course all the humans seemed to think that Lindan Marcos was the best thing that ever happened to Nuban, though I saw his actions through different eyes. No one loved him enough that he would ever ascertain an heir. That would have meant a painful death on my part as he simply loathed elves.

I could always tell when the soldiers were coming to take the boys away; the whole town seemed to become more on edge. They also seemed to be on the lookout for any foreign faces, especially anyone who vaguely resembled at elf. For me, it was a time to hide and not come out; they'd noticed the resemblance in me.  The soldiers always seemed to turn up at evening, and the first place they always came was here to the orphanage. All us girls would run and hide in our rooms, and not come out. The first few times I peeked out from my room, curious but no more. The idea of the boys being taken against their own will really disgusted me, and I no longer took an interest in it.

Lindan Marcos would never be able to get me to be obedient to his iron will, and a good thing too. I did not approve of what he did; my parents had taught me all about what the humans had been like before his rules and the differences now. The humans had been a lot more free willed and friendly.

We'd all noticed the changes since he came into power, we'd all had to hide again in our beloved forests. Also we'd had to fight him on multiple occasions to defend the woods. He was not a good man and I knew that. Eventually I would help, to bring the man down.

Fifteen years had gone by in that place, and I still didn't like the way things were. I remembered the elves, how my people lived. It's a much more peaceful, relaxed place in the woods of Quessir Sdnal, the mighty woods that mark the southern end of Nuban as a whole realm. Those woods were the true home of my people.

While I sat there, I heard someone knock on my door. I hastily covered my ears, having finally gotten a grasp on hiding them completely, as the door opened a little.

The orphanage mistress, Mrs. Glassby, tucked her head in. Her hair was a dark brown, short and curly. Even for a fully grown human, she was shorter than me, and slightly chubby. I glanced up at her to see that her generally never worried olive eyes were filled with fear. They only ever took on that look when the King's men were here, recruiting again.

"There's someone here to see you," she said. Her voice was barely audible. That surprised me; I wondered why she was so shaken like this. She withdrew from the room, leaving me quite afraid, had the soldiers realized what I was?

Then I watched as another woman entered my line of vision, on almost silent feet. I raised my eyes to take in her appearance. She had shiny shoulder length chocolate brown hair and sapphire blue eyes. The woman's lips were slightly thinner on the top lip, an unusual flaw in my people, and her brown eyebrows were finely slanted, as was her chin. My eyes fell on the powerful longbow she held and the quiver of arrows slung across her back filled with black swan feather fletched arrows.

My eyes widened a little as I took those weapons in. She chuckled. I watched as she lowered the bow and quiver to the ground near the door. She also placed a slender sword with the bow.

"Uh, who are you?" I asked a little shakily. Who was this woman? Why was she here?

She finally turned to face me and in a voice that I actually remembered a second after she'd spoken, she said, "My name, Gem Hawksong, is Nuala Evandari."

I sat there for a moment. My mind was racing due to the fact I had not seen another elf in so may long years. Pleasure shot through me now, and I knew that she would be pleased to have found me. "You've come for me, have you?"

"I certainly have," was her kind answer. I felt reassured, that voice was very familiar. Of course, that was because she was the sister of my father. Nuala seemed quiet for a long pause and then she finally said, "There is another reason I came."

Another reason? What? I thought in confusion. Hiding it though, I asked, "What would that be?" I kept my voice polite and my eyes showed I was eager for an explanation.

Nuala's lips were a blur as she said something completely silent, unexpected. Her eyes squeezed shut as she concentrated.

With a soft thump, a white and orange orb appeared on the bed beside me. It was interesting the colours. The main part of it was white. The orange on it, consisted of several large spots spaced evenly over the shell. Where did that come from? I wondered. And how did she make it appear?

"Would you be able to touch that for me, please?" I could easily read the doubt in her eyes.
Feeling nervous and starting to remember where I had seen something like this. I remembered the day when I actually saw an egg just like this, and I knew who the mother was. That day had almost faded into memory.

"It never hatched? In fifteen years since Bizandra laid it?" I asked, curiously. I did not touch it yet.

"We'd almost given up hope that it would hatch. Now when I think about it that might be because it's Uruohtar was not in Anthatal or the woods. So I just thought that maybe, you might be the one we're looking for here. Now will you touch it?"

That made me smile. "So you think I might be the one who it is waiting for?" I reached out and gently touched it for a few seconds. The egg's shell was not smooth; instead it was covered all over with hard scale like short knobs.

Instantly it vibrated. The sudden vibration shocked me. I had not anticipated anything like that. As I felt it, my eyes widened.

I watched curiously as the egg continued to shake, its movements becoming quicker and quicker. Something inside seemed to be smacking at the hard looking shell, increasing strength. Then it was still for a few moments. The shaking began again, harder this time. Slowly cracks started to form in the rough shell. Then finally piece by piece, the shell fell apart. A flat long head rose out of the hole and shifted towards me. The eyes were almost like a human's eyes, they had black pupils and carnelian irises. I smiled as I looked down at the little head, white except for its eyes. The little wyvern's nostrils were flared, which meant it would have no trouble in the air. Out the back of its head were three short spines, about an inch long each.

The shape of the little hatchling's head was familiar. I knew what it was. I did not want to startle it so in a gentle quiet voice I said, "Uruloki." This meant 'wyvern' and that was what it was. The little wyvern lowered its head and started to snap at the hard shell around it with a fury I had not expected.

"While it hatches, I'm going to go speak to the orphanage mistress. You're going to come with me tonight," Nuala told me. I nodded, not taking my gaze from the little wyvern.

Then she was gone, but I was only faintly aware of that, too enraptured by the wyvern to care. Then the wyvern grabbed at one last part of the egg, and I watched as it tugged hard at the shell. The shell split completely into pieces. The wyvern now started to unfolded itself from its curled up state. I smiled, as the long tail shifted out straight. The end of its tail was covered in feathers.

The only other orange parts the wyvern had were the curled thick spines, as well as the four talons on each of the hatchlings two feet. Its wings were shaped similarly to those of an eagle, and I knew that sort of bird well. Like an eagles, they were covered in small white feathers.

I had seen other wyverns, before my parents hid me here. There were at least three of them, and they were all different to this one. To me though, the wyvern in front of me was the best thing I could have ever gotten.

It was then I heard the door open slightly and Nuala slid in. She smiled and swiftly piled the broken pieces of shell into one pile. Again she spoke and a tiny bag appeared which she neatly put the pieces of shell into. This bag she carefully concealed under the clothing she wore.

"We better leave before Mrs. Glassby comes to strip off the bed and get rid of all my left behind stuff," I said. Not that there was much to leave, I had no personal belongings that I wanted to take with us.

"I have a room at an inn we may go to," Nuala said. She seemed to agree that we had to leave. I laughed and looked down at my little wyvern. "But how to get this one there unseen?" I pondered, indicating the wyvern.

"Under my robes we can, it's easy enough," Nuala replied swiftly.

I watched eagerly as the wyvern was hidden by Nuala carefully. As we moved outside, I thought back to the days when I had been one of the elves in my natural home. One memory in particular, I revisited.

I had been talking to my mother, in one of the smaller clearings in the vast forest. I knew within my mind that the only difference in our appearances was our eyes. Mine were sky blue; hers were shiny metallic silver.

Though my mother looked to be about thirty years old I knew this was not the case. She really was one hundred years old. She was slender and stood taller than most humans. Her long silvery gold hair wove around her face in a light breeze that touched us.  I was young, only bout ten years old and looked a lot like a five year old. That was saying something different, though I was very short. My hair reached to my shoulders already. "I don't get it. Why am I the one being hidden?" I asked.

"Gem, we need to keep you safe, and the best way to do that is to hide you where he would not look to find you. Someone will come when you're needed back here" my mother, Queen Laura, told me.

"But, they're human! How can you think to send me to them? What are you both thinking? I don't think I can do this!" I exclaimed. There was no way I could do this, it made no sense to me.
Then there was a loud thudding rhythmic noise and I saw a wyvern soaring down towards us.

The wyvern was about fifty feet long and twenty feet tall. The head of the wyvern was not flat; instead the eyes were raised out of her head, which was not flat like her mate's. Instead the yellow nose slanted to a point, and three long pink spines ran out of the back of her head. Her gleaming scales were yellow, but her curved spines, iris' and talons were rose pink.

"La stella lusin ni fin gia du lye engame, Bizandra," I said courteously.

She snorted and dipped her head to me. "Umanu Gem," she said. She spoke like us, her mouth moved as it formed the words.

"Mani naa taa?" I asked curious that she had spoken directly to me, instead of her Uruohtar.

"Would you like to come for a fly with me?" Bizandra then asked.

I was astonished by her question. My mind raced to form a coherent answer for the patiently waiting wyvern. I knew how old the great wyvern was and I certainly did not want to insult her with my response.

I listened as my mother said in a calm voice, "Feel free to go with her, Gem. You'll be perfectly safe with her."

I then had my answer. Speaking politely, I said, "I would be honoured to fly with you, mighty Bizandra."

The memory was gone as soon as it had come. It left me slightly disorientated. I really knew now just how much I really missed my mother. Why was it not her who had come for me? Why did Nuala come instead? I was saddened by the strange emptiness that I felt inside me, but I had no way of getting rid of that.

"What is it, Gem? What did you just see? I know it was a memory but who was it of?" Nuala asked quietly. For a moment I wondered just how she knew what I had remembered. Later I might have asked her about it, but not right then.

"I saw my mother and her wyvern," I replied softly. It made me remember how much I missed home. Those woods were where I belonged, not in this repulsive downtrodden place. The woods were my true home and I belonged there.

Nuala simply smiled at me and said, "Let us move on now, Princess." I smiled as the familiar voice spoke again. I knew that she was still a higher ranked person than me, until I took my mother's place. Not that that mattered to me, she was my aunt as well.

As curious as my mind was, I followed Nuala into a low building from which an old sign creaked in the wind, attached crudely to the room. The symbol on it was so worn I did not really know what it was meant to be.

We walked up some old creaky stairs to a different floor in the inn. The wooden floor below us creaked as we moved, Nuala in the lead this time. The hallway was lit by evenly spaced candles mounted on the walls.

Then we walked to the end of the hallway, turning up another flight of stairs. The hallway above was not so long this time, and the stairs were not so creaky. Possibly this area was not so often used as the floor below.

Sure enough I was surprised to see that the floor was smooth and the candles were newer up here. We stopped at a polished door nearby and Nuala unlocked it with a brass key. She opened the door and I quickly moved in, and my wyvern followed curiously.

The room was not big, but three doors branched off it. I looked curiously into each of them. The first was a small crowded bathroom and the other two contained a bed each. One was slightly bigger than the other and I knew somehow that the smaller room was mine.

Nuala looked at me, her face seemed far off somewhere as she said, "Tomorrow I'll tell you more about our people."

Wondering what she meant, I moved into my room, picked up my little wyvern and shut the door. I then proceeded over to my bed, and sat down, letting the little wyvern curl up against my legs as I laid down to sleep.

Chapter 2

I was flying through the air, wearing armour, on a magnificent white and orange wyvern. Gaelira and I were a force to be reckoned with. Not many other wyverns and foes could get away from us and live, if we were fighting.

However we were not the only other wyvern and rider in the air. Below me I could see many elves and humans fighting.

Gaelira let out an amazing tongue of white flames from her slanted maw and my dream stopped as she roared in pain.

As the sky was brightened by the first pale rays of sunlight the next morning, I woke up. As I did, I felt disorientated as to where I was. The room was unfamiliar to me. Then my memories came rushing back to me.

Once I realized what had gone on last night, I became aware of something wrapped around my left arm where it lay on the bed. Speaking of, I had not had such a good nights sleep in a long time.

Looking down next to me on the bed, I saw my little wyvern. It was just looking up and I knew that it knew that I was awake. The little hatchling slowly got to its feet, falling over twice as it tried. Then it gave a humongous yawn, its mouth stretching open more than I thought possible.
I sat up on the bed and it walked shakily over to me, to settle on its long legs in a crouch on my lap. It then raised its head to look at me with its bright eyes.

My eyes roamed over its face, memorizing it, and also comparing it to the fully grown wyvern in my vision last night. It was hard to believe that the magnificent wyvern I had seen could in any way possibly grow up from this tiny, house cat sized hatchling.

The little wyvern gazed back at me; I spotted three tiny orange bumps that rested on the crest of its white neck.

"Have a good sleep?" I asked, not really expecting an understandable answer from it.

"Yes," the wyvern said through its mouth. The voice was female, and I liked the sound of it.

"Do you have a name?" I asked.

The wyvern struggled to speak this time, but gave up. Instead it shook its head from side to side, which I took for a no.

"I think I know what it is," I told her.

The wyvern looked up at me through its eyes eagerly, they were sparkling with curiosity.

"Want to hear it?" I asked.

"Yes."

I nodded and thought about the name. Then I said, "Gaelira!" After a pause I added, “It means Undying Flame.”

The wyvern chirped as I said it and I could feel her acceptance of the name through her thoughts immediately.

"Then that is your name," I said. "Gaelira."

"Yes!" the wyvern said softly in excitement. "What … yours?"

"Me? I am Gem Hawksong," I laughed. "Call me Gem, alright."

She nodded slightly.

"I love you, Gaelira, you have no idea how much," I told the little hatchling. "We should go see if Nuala is awake yet."

"I… kn…ow," the hatchling said struggling with the words, again.

"Maybe I should teach you how to speak later on," I laughed.

"Yes." Gaelira stood up carefully and hopped off my lap, onto the bed nearest me.

I stood up and walked towards the closed door. The springs in the mattress creaked a few times and then there was a soft thud near me. Down on the ground was my wyvern, walking towards me. Her talons clicked on the floorboards as she moved across to me, shakily. I looked down at her again; her hooked claws were tinted orange on the very tips.

Definitely got some growing to do, I thought. The wyvern unquestionably scarcely resembled her full-fledged self.

The thought made me speculate about the battle that I had seen. What was the cause for her and me to be in it? Who were we fighting and why? With any luck all those questions could be answered by Nuala.

The door swung open with a loud creak and I moved out of the room. My little wyvern followed after me enthusiastically. It did not take long for me to spot Nuala sitting in an old chair by the grungy lofty window, basking in the sun.

A gentle fresh breeze caressed my face as I got nearer, she had the window open. "Morning Nuala," I said drawing near.

She looked at me and smiled. "Ah you're up are you two? I was starting to wonder about that."

"Sorry, we had a little talk before we came out, I found out my wyvern's name," I explained.

"What is it?" Nuala asked with interest, looking at my wyvern curiously.

"Gaelira," the wyvern replied eagerly.

Nuala gasped. "She can talk already?"

"Not fully, she's still learning the finer points about it. She can only speak a few words, but it's enough for me to know what she's trying to say to me," I explained again.

"Is that right, Gaelira Anarloki?" Nuala asked.

My wyvern looked at me in confusion. She did not understand the strange word that Nuala had spoken.

In my own mind I spoke to her, ‘Anarloki means Sun dragon.’

"Yes, Nu...uh.luh," Gaelira responded.

I forced back a laugh at the way Gaelira spoke Nuala's name. It was funny and I had to struggle with myself for a moment. Nuala was not one to laugh hen others spoke her name wrong. I watched her reaction carefully.

Nuala smiled at my wyvern. "For only a day old hatchling, you are more highly developed than most your age."

Possibly because every hatchling that chooses someone takes on their Uruohtar's memories and language when they choose someone?" I suggested. "That way they only have to learn to articulate the words, though they already know them."

Gaelira snorted, she knew what I meant alright. "It… hard…speaking."

"You'll get the hang of it, Gaelira," I assured her. "It takes time for everyone to learn to talk. You've got it to some extent easier than I did, I did not get to have someone else's memories, and I had to be taught every thing from nothing."

"That's true, wyverns like you do have an advantage there, though only those who are given up by their parents to become the partner of an elf or human have that advantage," Nuala said. "Wild born wyverns have it just as hard as we humans and elves all do."

“What human… elf?" Gaelira quipped .

"Gaelira, a human has rounded facial features. Also they age quicker than us and are mortal. Elves however..." I picked her up. "See how my features are pointed: my ears, chin, eyebrows, and eyes?"

"Yes," Gaelira replied touching my cheek with her maw.

"Elves are like me," I said.

"Okay."

I then looked to Nuala, and asked "So what are we going to do today?"

"Well, I thought we might go out of town for the day and have a good talk," Nuala replied.
I understood what she meant by that, she wanted to talk about things that were likely to get us both in trouble, not to mention Gaelira discovered in that case. Neither thing did I want to happen, I knew how the dark king would react to us being found in one of his towns. He'd come for us himself, most likely, a thing that would be very bad for the town.

I wanted no trouble to come to them because of me. Not to mention any trouble to come while Nuala was here. "Let's go, "I said eagerly.

"What... me?" Gaelira asked .

"You can hide under my clothes again, Gaelira," Nuala laughed, her voice low. The little wyvern hid while I got a drink of water, suddenly feeling very thirsty.

When we were ready we moved back through the creaky floor boarded hallway and out of the inn. We made our way slowly out of the town, causing no suspicion.

When we found a big young white ash tree we stopped and Gaelira came out of her hiding place. I lifted her up so she could climb in the tree above us if she so wished.

I heard her gratitude, she could not say the right words yet, they were still beyond her. By tomorrow night she would be speaking as well as Nuala and I did, that was expected of hatchlings, and we both knew it.

Gaelira climbed up into the tree, making good use of her sharp talons and clawed front legs.

"Okay, so what did you want to talk about?" I asked, sitting down by the tree and resting my back against the trees wide trunk.

Nuala sat down nearby me, and I could hear the rustling of leaves as Gaelira climbed above us. She sounded like she was having fun for the moment while we talked.

"You know how I told you that I learnt something before I came, when our warriors returned once more from skirmishing with Lindan Marcos' men?" Nuala began.

"Yes, I know there was more you were going to tell me, but I knew also that that was not the place to discuss that," I replied. I'd known all about that and I was really curious about it right now what she was going to say.

"Well, your parents did not return. At first I thought they simply had things to se to see to, when first they did not return." Nuala stopped, to reorganize her thoughts, I hoped.

"Go on," I told her, bracing myself for what she was about to say to me. I felt Gaelira's eyes on me.

"I spoke with one of the generals in the remaining warriors who returned. He did not have good news for me at all. He told me they would not return because they never could."

My mind rebelled against that news. I knew what she meant by that. My emotions were that instant that I could not stop myself from being filled with rage, and sadness.

‘Gem, we will strike at him, but not yet. He'll suffer your wrath, one day soon,’ Gaelira told me in my mind, she knew I would take a while to recover. The idea that my parents were dead was unfathomable and I was taken aback by the news.

I was aware of Nuala shifting across closer to me and then her arms were around me as the first tears ran down my cheeks. She did not say anything, she simply held me as I cried myself out.

That took a rather long time and when I was finished I was still saddened.

“I suppose that's enough learning for today, you won't be able to focus on anything else now you know that," Nuala told me.

I nodded and we headed back to our inn room. Before we left I reached up and lifted Gaelira down from the tree.

The next day we did not go out, instead we stayed back in the room, I was eager to relax a little; I did not really have any interest in learning anything today. Instead I began to teach Gaelira to talk properly.

It was an amusing process and Gaelira struggled with many of the words.

"Uhru-low-ky?" she asked.

"No, U-roo-loki," I replied calmly. I was trying to teach her to speak a few of the simpler words in my native tongue, something she was able to say a lot in.

"Uhro-low-ki?" she tried again.

"Close," I laughed. “Try once more, try and say it a bit quicker.” I loved helping her.

"Uruloki?" Gaelira chirped.

"Perfect," I laughed softly in joy. "You learnt that one. It actually means…"

"Wyvern, I know," she snapped. "Next word!"

Demanding little thing, I thought in glee. I loved her so much it was hard to be angry with her for snapping at me. Plus what was the point? We were two halves of the whole now.

And so the lessons continued, for a while into the day. She was such a fast learner and was soon speaking proper sentences.

Then there was a knock on the door which made me jump and Gaelira to growl softly in surprise.

I'll get that," Nuala told us, rising from the couch she'd been sitting on watching us and helping where she could. I stood up, and stretched then moved to the couch, Gaelira trailing behind me.

I heard a few words spoken in an undertone and then footsteps came towards me as I played with Gaelira's scales, running my fingers along her.

"Nuala, can I speak with her alone?" a male voice asked, a hint of surprise evident in his voice.

"Ah, so you do remember her still, of course," Nuala replied. I heard her move out onto the balcony, shutting the door behind her.

It was then that I raised my head to look at the newcomer. My eyes wandered over his appearance trying to recognize him.

The tall elf that stood before me was muscular. His eyes were a well-known warm chocolate brown and his hair was the same color. It reached to his shoulders right now, though I was sure when I left home it was a lot shorter. His face was more angular, I could tell that he was fully grown up now.

As I thought back to my life with my true people, I knew who he was. "Drannor!" I exclaimed in honest amazement. "What are you doing here?" I stood up and move over towards him a bit.

"I'm glad you remember me," Drannor laughed. "Missed you, Gem."

"Missed you too, Drannor. Still I cannot believe you came here," I told him.

He chuckled and as I moved a little closer to him I had the feeling Gaelira was about to do something. Sure enough I stepped just in the way as she whacked into my back, having leapt at Drannor in annoyance. As she tried to glide away to the ground I caught her and said in my mind, 'What's the matter, Gaelira?'

'You're ignoring me, put me down,' she growled in her mind.

'Gaelira, I have not seen Drannor for fifteen years. Let me spend some time with him alone,' I scolded her.

I did not get an understandable answer from her in words, but her feelings told me she would. Once I was sure she was not playing tricks on me, I put her down on the ground.

"There is another reason I came, Gem." Drannor turned from me for a second and called, "Nuala, can you come in here please?"

He then took a seat on the crudely made couch, while I sat on one of the other seats. Before I was settled, he tapped the seat next to him, and I laughed, shifting across to him. Obviously he had remembered the way things used to be between us.

Gaelira followed, grumbling under her breath as she did. Nuala came, in to some extent not surprised by where I was. She'd known about Drannor and I while I had actually lived in Anthatal.

"Nuala, the elves need you again," Drannor said, once she had taken a seat.

"What's happened this time?" Nuala asked, in interest.

"Those damn orc's have decided to raid the woods near Anthatal again. Some of the farmers that live outside the walls are starting to come in, looking for refuge," he explained.

Nuala sighed in annoyance. "Here we have a problem. I cannot leave Gem again, Gaelira is too young to travel such a distance."

"That’s easily fixed, leave them here with me. I can follow behind you, but at a slower pace. We won't leave until Gaelira can fly," Drannor offered.

I smiled. That plan would work. There was no way I would be near the fighting which I knew was what she was after. There was no chance that she would allow that until I could defend myself.

"Sounds fair, why did I not think of that when you turned up?" Nuala mused.

"Maybe because you were not really thinking about having to return all of a sudden?" I suggested. To remain here with Drannor would be nice.  I was looking forwards to that indeed. By allowing me to stay here with him, I was being given the chance to spend time with him alone.

"Possibly."

“Well, there are some friends in the orphanage that I simply do not want to leave behind,” I told her. I thought about Collin, Sam, Gemma and Ashlere - where did I know her name from?.

“We’ll go get them now.” Nuala then looked at Drannor. “Will you stay here and keep Gaelira safe?”

“As you wish.” Drannor looked at me. “Don’t be too long.”

“We won’t take long, I have to leave as soon as I can,” Nuala said. That said, we hurried to the orphanage.

I could see the four children playing in the street together. I moved towards them, while Nuala stopped a little way from them and watched. “Hello my friends,” I said in a cheery voice.

The first person to look at me was a tall sixteen year old fair haired boy, the only boy in the group. His light grey eyes brightened in reorganization of me. “Where did you disappear to?”

“We went to your room as you asked only to find you missing,” a grey eyed blond girl, twin of the boy told me.

“I was adopted as you can see. You would all like it to be out of there, wouldn’t you?”

They were all crowding around me, Sam giving me a giant hug. I noticed that Ashlere was looking at Nuala, as if she knew her. I was looking on in interest, glancing at Nuala.

To me the expression on Nuala’s face was the same as the one she’d had when she’d found me.

“You’re all going to come home with me, especially you, Gem, and you, Ashlere."


Chapter 3

Several weeks passed by as Drannor and I waited for Gaelira to grow up enough that she could stay airborne. He did not want to leave until she could stay in the sky and frequently we all went out into the open, out of sight of the guards of the town, to see us and I would help her learn to take off. The others were all easily amused by her; they seemed to become good friends to her.
“I like your friends a lot,” Gaelira told me. “Especially: the boy Collin. He'd make a good Uruohtar one day. He's very attentive when he watches us.”

“You think so?’” I asked.

“Yes, I'm sure he'd be good for it one day.”
As the day for our departure loomed ahead of us in a few days time, I knew that the people of Adurna should get to know just who they had been looking after all this time. Drannor agreed, he thought it was worth showing them that we could still get on without trouble. After all for the last few weeks we'd been hiding here unnoticed. Not to mention I had lived her for fifteen years, right under their noses.
No trouble did I ever cause either. Now I truly wondered why it was that we were so unliked by Lindan Marcos. He was able to do many of the things we had. Not to mention he was immortal, unless someone, hopefully me killed his wyvern. Rhothilion had flown over the town once, but he had not come down. He'd been hunting most likely. Plus Lindan Marcos did not really bother about checking in with the lord of Adurna very often. Maybe because we were so far from Nuduien.
But then again, who was I to ever know what he was thinking when it came to this town? After all, to him it obviously meant nothing. All he ever did was recruit the young boys into his army, not that that was something I was going to allow for much longer.
Once I got back home and learnt how to fight, his reign would be over. He probably thought we were just hiding in the woods, too scared of him. That was not going to be the case for much longer. I would see to that myself.
Gaelira nudged me playfully. “What are you thinking about, little one?”
“You’re the little on, not me at the moment,” I teased. “Just thinking about what will happen soon. Thinking about the human’s false king, and the fact that he probably thinks we are cowards waiting for him to come in and conquer us.” I laughed scornfully. “I know my people are nothing of the sort.”
“So do I. I've known for a long time that I would have a hard job ahead of me when I found you. Bizandra told me once, when she checked to see if I had hatched yet.”
“She told you while you were in your egg?”
“Yes.”
So on the morning of our planned day to leave, I got up and when I saw everyone else waiting for me, I told them, "I'm going for a walk with Gaelira while you all finish eating. I shall not be long."
"Want me to come?" Drannor asked. I knew he was not willing to let me out of his sight. I did not however, know why that was.
“We should reveal ourselves to the world alone. I don't think anyone would dare to harm her with me standing nearby,” Gaelira said.
“You're right, Gaelira, we will do that,” I said. "I'll just be gone for a few minutes. Then we will come back and we'll all leave this place."
I knew that it was time to leave, the soldiers would undoubtedly be on their way again. We had to leave before they got here, I did not want Collin and Sam separated by them. If I could help it, Collin would not be taken like so many others.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Who would come up here? I wondered, hurrying over to the door. Drannor did not endeavor to stop me, which was not usual. Typically he insisted to get the door, not me. I opened the door a little and looked through. A youthful woman, with silver eyes and auburn hair, stood there.
"Hello Gem. Nuala sent me," the woman said.
I let her in, and shut the door then looked at her in bewilderment. "Why did she send you, a human to me?" My observations told me that she was very deprived; her clothes were patched and threadbare.
"I'm here because Nuala sent me to make your wyvern a saddle. She already paid me for them," the woman replied.
It was then that Gaelira came walking over to her, her head bowed as she could not raise it up properly, the roof was too low. She was about the size of a small horse's full size in length alone now and she ate almost the same amount as a pony. Only she ate meat, and that would start to attract attention soon if we did not leave.
The human bowed her head to Gaelira and then undid the bundle she'd been carrying. I watched as she revealed a lot of leather, and some uncomplicated tools, of which I took little notice.
She got to work and before long, a saddle was made. After she'd finished she looked at me and said, "I'll show you how to put this on her, and then I must depart."
"One question first, how do you know so much about wyverns and anything to do with them?" I asked. It was starting to bug me how much she seemed to know about my wyvern's kind.
"I used to be an Uruohtar. My wyvern was slain, many years ago. Now I work behind Lindan Marcos' back, helping the occasional new wyvern Rider like you to obtain a saddle." I noticed the tone of her voice; she obviously did not wan to talk of that.
She then proceeded to show me how to put them on Gaelira. Gaelira simply squatted down as much as she could, to make things easier for me. The straps that held the saddle in place looped around her neck, along the sides of her back and belly. The straps from her back and belly were held together by two padded loops that rested around the top of her legs. The saddle's seat was not much to look at. Where my knees would go was padded and two firm reinforced stirrups dangled from firm strip of leather.
When everything was in place the human said, "Hop up on her and I'll see if anything else needs adjusting."
I did not want to cause my wyvern any discomfort, so I did, climbing lightly up. When Gaelira made to stand up as much as she could she wavered for a minute, clearly not used to my weight. Then she regained her balance and rose up again on her powerful legs.
“They hold well,” Gaelira snorted, carefully twisting her body in the room. She was testing the saddle, and the straps.
‘The real test will be when we fly for the first time,’ I told her.
"Thank you, we are both pleased with them," I said, peaking for Gaelira as well.
"My pleasure. I am glad the two of you like them," the human replied. The saddle maker left and Gaelira nudged me.
I chuckled and followed Gaelira towards the open balcony door. Our balcony was only small, but it was higher roofed than the rest of the room inside. Gaelira found it was easier for her to sleep outside these days. Then Gaelira crouched, and I climbed lightly onto her.
Gaelira was humming in her throat as she stood up once more, this time upright. Then her huge feathery wing unfurled as she strode towards the edge. When she was completely used to my wait she snorted, a tiny tendril of smoke issued from her nose, and then without warning me, she leapt off the balcony.
Her wings snapped open and beating in frenzy she managed to pull out of the dive. Slowly we flew higher and higher, it had been a long time since I'd flown, and I was faintly dizzy. I felt as though I had left my stomach behind, Gaelira was so quick to climb into the air. 
As we flew, I looked down on the village, and it looked extremely small now. I closed my eyes and sighed. I then reopened my eyes as Gaelira drew my attention in one direction, saying, “There is a black creature flying towards this town. It is too big to be a bird.”
“What?” I looked in the direction Gaelira was.
I could see the black dot, but I wondered what it was. “Shall we see what it is?” she asked.
“Do you think you can handle it if it proves to be another wyvern?” I asked. I was slightly worried that there was someone else up here. Well maybe someone else. If it was a wild one well, we would have to get back to the others and fast.
“Do not doubt me. I know my limits. Whatever it is, I don’t think it wants to attack us. Else it would be already,” she said. “So shall we go and intercept it?”
“Very well. You’re lucky I trust you, Gaelira,” I said. “Let us go see what it is then. I doubt it could escape you if it posed a threat to Adurna.”
She snorted. Then she turned in the air and started to wing her way towards the black dot that she had seen. I wondered why she knew it was bigger than anything else that we had seen of late.
We flew quickly through the sky and soon I recognized the shape as that of another wyvern.
The black wyvern herded us down to land and I soon noticed someone on its back. Then the person removed their helm and his face showed he was scrutinizing me. he seemed to be trying to recognize me, as if  I had met him before.
As soon as I saw his features, I recognized what he was. He had short black hair, it was shorter than a normal elf's hair, bright blue eyes and rounded chin, ears and catlike eyes. I could see that his cheekbones were high like an elf's but other than that, he was human. "Aaye, Uruohtar," I called to him.
"La stella lusin ni fin gia du lye engame, Uruohtar," the half elf replied.
"Mani to lle essa? mankoi yasa lle sinome?" I asked, wanting to know a few things. I spoke slowly; I was not used to my old language yet
He must have noticed how slowly I spoke. In the human tongue he replied, "Haemir Agrivar. I was sent here t find Princess Gem Hawksong, her wyvern, Gaelira, and several orphans."
"Well you just found Gem. That would be me, and this...”
“I am Gaelira,” Gaelira finished for me. I laughed when she interrupted me. It seemed she was eager to talk to these two. I wondered for a brief second why that happened to be so. She’d always been so slow and unwilling whenever it was Drannor who spoke to her.
"Where are your other friends?" Haemir asked. The fact that the black wyvern was watching Gaelria with eager eyes did not go unnoticed.
How did he know about them? And why the hell was he here in the first place? Who had sent him to Adurna, knowing full well that I was hiding there?
"I will show you, come with me," I replied.
I knew Drannor would be able to sort this out. No one could stop him from reading their mind. I knew that much. Hell, it was a strain to keep him out for me, though my strength was a lot weaker than his.
"Alright." Haemir mounted his wyvern again; I had not noticed he'd gotten off. "This is Ackron, by the way.” I smiled and Gaelira flicked her tail in a playful manner when she heard Ackron’s name.

This time as we flew I thought about this newcomer. I knew him; he was a friend to my family and had been for a long time.

The two wyverns leapt into the sky quickly. All the villagers stared at them in awe again. They knew not to tell King Marcos and Rhothilon. By seeing two new wyverns in the sky, they could guess that King Marcos' enemies had not been so idle. War would come soon. They crowded together, not wanting to come very close. All this I saw as Gaelira flew over the tow once more.
Time to get this over with, I thought. “We better land in the middle of town. I have some things to tell them!”

“Alright then,” Gaelira snorted. Quickly I informed Haemir and Ackron of what we would do. Gaelira was very hesitant as she landed with a jolt on the cobblestones. I loosened my grip once she was settling into a crouch. She pulled her wings close to her body as Ackron soared down after her.

I looked around at all the humans around me, taking in their confused, and some of the afraid expressions they had. A few of them though, looked up at me with some recognition. Those few people recognized me, though many of the town's folk only rarely saw me out of the orphanage.
When Ackron landed, I could tell that they were worried by the presence of someone new to the village. These people were so easily cautious of newcomers, new people felt like outsiders when they came. Few villagers spoke to the newcomers; until the people showed they were no threat to the rest of the village.

It was obvious that they saw him as a threat, though they could not see his face. I knew they gained that assumption because of the fact he wore armour, that was not crafted the same as the armour that Lindan Marcos' troops wore. On top of that, the emblem on his silver breastplate happened to be a rearing red griffon.

That was not Lindan Marcos' symbol. The human king's symbol was a snarling blue wyvern. Not the best thing to have, we all knew it was no symbol of a wise man. It was a symbol that showed that Lindan Marcos had, in our understanding, completely lost his mind. Possibly due to the fact this war had raged on and on, at least seventy years now.

"Who are you both?" asked one man, as we got off.

"Names we shall not give you. Remember this; I in particular fight against King Marcos. I also protect this dear lady and her wyvern," replied Haemir cautiously. He was not interested in letting on who we were. Just then he saw a man riding quickly away from the town. "moec oto lle rah!" he shouted. The horse heard him, and in spite of its riders instructions, trotted to Haemir.

Haemir looked over the horse as it approached. "That is no human bred horse. If it were one of your dumb animals, he would not have come to me. Get off of that proud animal now! No elfin bred horses should be forced to bear a human against his will."

Out of sheer fright, the man dismounted. Then Haemir noticed the snarling blue wyvern on the man's breastplate.

"You bear King Marcos' symbol. You are one of his men," Haemir said, shifting his hand to his sword's hilt.

The man answered by swinging his own sword at Haladavar's head. It was blocked so swiftly, no one saw Haladavar draw his sword. All I saw was a blur of movement, and quite quickly, there was a sword on the ground. The man was shocked that he had been disarmed so quickly. Haemir swung the tip of his sword up to the human's jawbone with one quick, undodgable movement. The man froze in shock at the blade resting on his jawbone.

"You'll say nothing to King Marcos or you'll have me to deal with. Don't make me fight you again, you'll not be so fortunate as to keep your life," Haemir said. The man nodded shakily and Haemir lowered his sword slowly.

"I keep the horse, leave now," Haemir said coldly. The man grabbed his sword and ran off.

Haemir spoke briefly to Ackron, and then looked at me. "Time to move on now. Where to?"

I smiled at him. Time to get back to Drannor and the younger humans. "Come I will show you."

Haemir mounted his previously stolen elfin horse quickly. I understood that this was a hose that belonged to him, and not to anyone else. Why does he not mount Ackron? I thought. After all, I'm flying. Gaelira took two hobbling steps on her long legs and leapt into the sky, followed by Ackron. I looked down as the ground soared away and spotted the horse cantering below us.

All too soon, we got close to the inn. Find somewhere to hide with Ackron. “Drop me off now. I'll see you in a matter of days,” I said to Gaelira.

“I worry about you most when you're away from me,” the wyvern replied. “However I do trust you.”

Ackron and Gaelira took off from the ground in flurry of wing beats, raising a huge amount of dust and flew away. I coughed a few times while the dust settled and Haemir's horse trotted to a stop near me. One of the innkeepers came out to take it to the stable and we headed upstairs to my room.

I opened the door to my inn room and four other faces looked at Haemir, scared. A fifth face looked at him with mild surprise.

"Who is he, Gem? Where's Gaelira?" Collin asked.

"This is Haemir Agrivar. He's a half elf and was sent to guard me. Nuala asked him to come here," I replied, only looking at Drannor now.

"What is his other half?" Sam asked.

"Human," Haemir spat the phrase out disagreeably.

"What is wrong with being half human? We're no different to you except in looks," Gemma said crossly.

Haemir's voice was bitter. "Humans are weaker than elves. You are mortal and die of old age, elves are immortal. Humans tire faster in battle. The females of your race run and hide in the event of war, while ours fight. It is an insult for elves to mate with humans." He paused. "This bondage is scorned upon by those of pure elfin blood."

"A bad thing for him, because his father's house lost all its honour because of his mother," Drannor told us. "Now he has to earn it back for them."

That made no sense. Last time I’d been in Anthatal, he was respected by most of the elves. I did not think that he really had lost all his honour because of his mother.

Also shouldn’t my family have lost all their honour? My aunt was married to a human, Linda Marcos of all humans. That was by far worse than what Haemir’s father had done.

No elf trusted that human. Those who did were considered insane by the rest of us. Not that any elf dared call my aunt that when one of my family was nearby. They would get in a lot of trouble if they did, as we would always take offence. To me it did not really matter; after all, if she loved the human, why should what they all think stop her from that?

I did not see anything wrong with that, even though it was the human that I wanted to kill. That made it all the more worse my desire to kill him. Surely she knew his death would come eventually.


Chapter 4

A few more days past. Drannor and I were busy preparing for the trip home to Anthatal. I mainly went out of the inn room with him, knowing my way around the town. We managed to buy enough horses from the humans, for the whole group.

I smiled as I worked, it was so good to have him back by my side again. It had been a very long and tiring fifteen years without someone like him near me.

To tell any human what I really was would have been folly during that time. They were so easily convinced to say things that we never wanted known. No wonder there was the occasional yelling at when someone’s husband came home drunk from the tavern.

None of the women dared go there after dark; it was such a rowdy place at the best of times. I’d never stepped in the place, the noise repulsed me. More than once I had walked past and someone was thrown out as I passed by. 

While that had once angered me to have someone hurled out in front of me, I knew they would not dare try anything while Drannor walked by my side. We often walked through the streets with our hands together and a few of the humans that knew me well stared at him. And at me.

I had a bit of a reputation that I did not like any of the boys in town. Not that I cared about eh staring, I would be gone soon, not to return for a long time.

The townsfolk seemed eager to see us out of the town; they obviously knew something was going on. I was eager to leave and was glad when after only three more days, we were getting the horses and leaving.

As soon as we had all mounted Drannor told the three humans and Ashlere, "Guide your horses to follow us alright? I don't know how safe we are while we travel so listen to us if we tell you to do something."

I saw the others nod, though I knew that none of them could ride, and told them, "Try any copy me, I know how to ride, so follow behind me."

Again they nodded and Haemir led his horse to stand in front of mine, beside Drannor's. Then they started to walk off, and I nudged my horse in to follow them. Having an escort like this did not bother me; I knew that when I lived back in Anthatal it would be normal. Looking behind me, I saw the children all riding side by side.

When we stopped for the night, Haemir and I called our wyverns down from the sky to us. When Gaelira came to me, she seemed overly happy. That was kind of unusual for her. She usually was not happy when I called her back to me.

“What's got you so happy?” I inquired.

“Ackron's been showing me some things just in case I get attacked while I'm up in the sky, though that is not likely,” Gaelira replied. Her wings folded neatly as she spoke.

“I think that in a few days we'll be stopping in one of the elfin cities. Drannor thinks I should visit a few of them,” I informed her.

“By then I should be able to carry you,” Gaelira said.

“I don't know, I am rather heavy, even if I do not look like I am,” I replied, a little surprised.

She snorted and walked away, which seemed strange to watch, she sort of looked like a lion walking, she used the short legs that extended from her shoulders to balance as she walked. Her feathery wings were folded like a birds would be, tucked in next to her back.

I looked after her, and then walked over to my fellow elves, which were being pestered by my friends. "Hey guys, slow down a bit with the questions." It was easy for me to tell that they were pestering Haemir and Drannor about me. "I'm sure I can answer some of your questions."

"Then who are your parents, Gem?" Gemma asked.

For a moment I struggled with my emotions before answering, "They were Queen Laura Berilan and King Zelphar Nightstar."

"You know how it's been just over three thousand years since we humans first came to Nuban. How many elves have ruled us?" Collin asked.

I chuckled. They wanted to know about me and my family? "Well since you humans came, I will be the fourth to rule the elves. At the time you came, with gentle hearted John Marcos as your king, my mothers father, King Sudryl Finnasla ruled with his mate, Ara. They are the second monarchs we ever had here. I am the fourth now. Sudryl and Ara had three children, Laura, Wyn and Ava who is now married to that despicable Linda Marcos. Apparently Wyn was shot with an arrow, so my mother being second oldest, took the throne. Now that she and my father are dead, no thanks to Marcos, it is my turn."

"How's Ashlere related to you then?" Sam asked.

"Nuala is her mother, Galan Evandari is her father. Nuala is my fathers little sister. As for Drannor, well, he was adopted by Nuala shortly before my tenth birthday. No one knows who his parents really are.”

Shortly after, we all decided to call it a night and get some sleep. We had a long journey head of us. Gaelira walked over and laid down next to me, covering me with one of her wings.

Thanks Gaelira, I said, she was so warm.

No problem, Gem, she chuckled.

As we traveled the next morning, I wondered at how much different life would be for me when we got to Anthatal. I knew I would not be so stressed out in my natural home which was a good thing.

As we moved on, my friends started to pester me again.

"Can all the elves use magic, or is it just those with wyverns? Can you use magic? How old are you really? Are the elves immortal?"

"One at a time please!" I laughed at their curiosity. "All elves can use magic but those bonded to a wyvern are slightly stronger. Of course I can use magic, but I am no strong spell caster yet. I only know basic spells. Once I get home I will become stronger as I learn more. The elves are immortal and I am really thirty one years old," I said.

"Can you show us some magic?" Collin asked eagerly.

"Just remember that what's simple for me is not so easy for a human to accomplish," I responded.

They all laughed and I was surprised that they were not worried by what I'd said. I thought back, trying to find a spell I knew was easy for me to cast.

"If you're looking for a spell, Gem, try one that vanishes the tracks we're making," Drannor called. Spells were his strongest offensive and defensive skill though he was an adept swordsman and archer.

I smiled at his suggestion. "Trackkus evaro!" Within a few seconds, my horse's tracks vanished. My friends stared at the ground in amazement as the horses tracks disappeared. "See I can use magic." In my mind I was laughing at their faces.

"Drannor, is home the same as always?" I asked when we stopped for the night.

"Of course. Nuala, has looked after you kingdom quite well," Drannor replied, coming to sit beside me near the fire.

"Did you complete your training?" I asked.

"Yes, with distinction. My trainer, Lord Arren, was surprised at how quickly I managed to do so."

"I'm glad, at least be caught unaware if danger comes," I said. Then I shifted one arm to around him calmly. I loved him more than anything in the world.

"You're cold," he muttered, gently pulling me closer. I sighed and rested my head on his broad shoulder. He chuckled and gently kissed my cheek. "Sleep if you want to, sweetheart," he said.
A few days passed and we came ever to Quessir Sdnal, my ancient realm. We could all see the rising sight of something else on the horizon in front of us. I knew that was the tree line.

The only place at the present time that we elves were safe in. at the moment, Lindan Marcos had not the interest in coming in there after us. I wondered whether he was afraid of the woods.

“With someone like me by his side, I doubt that is why,” Gaelira said. “If he was frightened, he could get his wyvern to burn you all out of there.”

“I doubt he has had the idea or there would be no home left for me to return to,” I said. “Nuala would never let that happen, after all, I currently trust her to keep the woods safe.”

When I got back, that would be my job to ensure the safety of the woods. Sure it might be a hard job, but I would manage somehow, I was sure.

“Plus there are other wyvern’s who live in there,” I said. “Ackron is not the only other male around.” I laughed glad of that.


Chapter 5

When we stopped three days later, I saw that the woods were so close. We’d be in them when we stopped tomorrow night. There would be elves guarding the edge of the forest. I knew this from when I had left them last time.

They were waiting for my return; they had said they would never challenge me when I came back into the woods. Though I had said no and that they should anyway. What if there was someone with me who was not really trustable? I might trust them, but their job was to challenge anyone who tried to enter the woods.

Of course, they knew that if I said for them to do it, they had to. Otherwise they would get in trouble with me and anyone else I spoke to about it. Not something that any elf wanted. I had a lot of influence over the rest of them and I knew that. Not that I would ever abuse that fact.

That would be wrong. As we drew closer, I slowed my horse down for a few moments. “Stay close to us,” I said to the four children.

“Why?” Collin asked.

“My people are not accustomed to having humans in our forests. There may be trouble coming seeing as you are what you are,” I said

They all nodded and I started to get my horse moving a bit faster again. We all caught up with the others, Haemir and Drannor had stopped.

“Call Gaelira down, “Haemir said. “They have to stay with us for a while now.”

Gaelira, come down for me please, I said in my head.

She roared from above us. Then the two wyverns’s soared down and landed heavily. “Why do you need me?”

“Haemir says its best you stay with us for now,” I replied. “After all the elves have not seen you before.”

“Fine,” she snapped.

I laughed. What was her problem right now? It made sense that she should stay with us for now. I loved her and the worst thing that could happen was her getting hurt because no one knew she was my wyvern.

If she got hurt then I would feel it, we were linked now, and I knew that she would feel it if I was hurt. That was the only problem with this sort of link, we always knew whether the other was in danger or not.  Also we would do what ever we could to help the other, regardless of our own safety. To lose the other side of the link was unbearable. If either wyvern or elf died, than the other died too. Same went for the bond between human and wyverns.

“I’ll stay,” she promised. “Though it is troublesome walking on the ground like this. I prefer being up in the sky than on the ground.”

“I know you do, but it’s only for a short while.”

“As soon as I can I’m getting back up in the sky,” she muttered.

“Why are you so interested in being up there? I see nothing interesting about up there except that it is enjoyable to fly with you.”

“See you do like being up there,” she laughed.

I groaned.

Then we came to the tree line and just before we entered the trees someone called, “Who comes into the forest?”

About ten elves were visible watching us and all of them had their bows aimed at us, ready to shoot. I gasped at the unfriendly greeting.

Drannor and Haemir turned their horses around to talk to me.

‘They know our faces but not yours or the four other faces,” Drannor said.

“They knew I was leaving to go scouting, but they did not expect me to return with others,” Haemir said.

“You had better speak for yourself and your friends, Gem,” Drannor said.
I sighed. “Very well.” I looked at my friends. “Stay here!”

They all nodded, their eyes not leaving the elves. They knew the stories of my people and sadly not good ones. The humans told stories of us not being very friendly people at all.

I dismounted and strode forwards until I was very much in their bow’s range. If this went badly well, I knew I would die. There was no chance I could defend myself against all of them. I knew though that Haemir and Drannor would not allow a single arrow to even touch me.

“Yaa are lle!” called one of the elves, a male.

“Mani ness ha lle sinome in ese tuar?”

I sighed. “Amin essa is Gem Hawksong tinu en’ Aran Zelphar Nightstar ar Tari Laura Berilan,” I said. “Amin wish entul eska!”

“Prove to us who you say you are,” one of the replied, jumping down and walking closer to me.

Of course they could not see my face; after all I was wearing a hood, since it was cold at nights. I laughed for a second and once he was well and truly close enough to recognize me I swept my hood back so that my face was revealed.

I smiled as his eyes looked at me in shock.

“It is you!” he said.

I knew that he had not trusted me because of the fact he could not see my face. After all, anyone could say that they were me; he had to check my face before he could say anything as to whether I could come by or not.

“Took you long enough,” I said. “Do not worry yourselves about the other faces you see with Drannor and Haemir, they are my friends and if they do anything wrong you may be sure I will make them leave our forests.”

“And the wyvern?” he queried.

I had been hiding my hands until this moment. I raised the hand with the mark on it. “She is mine! Her name is…”

“Gaelira!” my wyvern finished. She leapt over to stand next to me, without my asking.

Her eyes were calculating, interested in these elves who dared to raise their weapons at me.

“Now will you let us all pass?” I asked.

“Of course. Welcome home,” the elf stammered. He bowed and then ran back to the others.

I heard several questions asked of him and he replied. The bows all lowered as the elves bowed to me.

I looked around as we trotted towards our ancient city among the trees. It was soon that I noticed how much thicker the tree trunks around me were getting. Glancing behind me, I saw that my friend's eyes were widening in amazement in the sheer size of the great white barked oak trees surrounding us now.

Soon a great stone wall loomed out in front of us. I knew that a gate would be somewhere, as I guided my steed behind Drannor and Haemir. Gaelira strode along beside me, as eager as I was to get inside the walls.

Then a pair of magnificent, ornately decorated white doors loomed up in front of me. They swung open slowly, and a horse cantered out. I could see Nuala settled on the horses' bare back.

She greeted us and praised Drannor for keeping me safe over that short period. Then she said, "Every elf in this city knows you are just here, Gem. They'll be watching you in particular, so do not do anything silly."

I gulped nervously at that. Though I'd often dreamed of this moment, now it was particularly daunting.

Welcome home Gem, to Anthatal, the heart of all the elfin cities in Nuban," Drannor said in a soft voice.

We continued on and soon as I entered the city all my memories came rushing back to the front of my mind. The human ones now faded to the back of my mind, fading away.

I smiled as I looked around as we moved. I remembered this ancient town; it was my one true home. The city spread for a mile in every direction that I could see.

My eyes instantly searched for the most ancient, white ash tree in the city. There it was, with its twenty-five meter thick trunk. Fine white steps circled around its beautiful, delicate trunk, towards a white flet twenty meters up that was the door step. At least another hundred meters up was a huge white box like flet, where the wyverns my parents used to have slept and nested in Bizandra's case.

I told Gaelira this and she seemed amused by this. She was very eager to get up there and have a look at where her parents had often slept.

“Just realize this Gaelira, that that area is yours now,” I warned her. '”Even if it does still carry Bjart and Bizandra's scent.”

'”what about the other wyvern that will live there?”

“That depends in many ways on me. If you have a mate, they sleep there, however if my mate has a wyvern, your mate will not sleep there,” I replied.

“Have you decided on a mate?”

“Not quite but I certainly have ideas about whom it will be. I am not ready to confront him about it yet,” I informed her.

Then we reached the tree and a young elf lord and his mate could be seen standing beside the tree.

Just before we came into earshot of them Drannor told me, "Now it's your turn to do the talking."

I nodded as we reached the young high elf.

"Ai' elen lusin ni deno' i' gia en' lye omenta, nar Dina Gem Hawksong tinu ar' Zelphar dul Laura," said the male elf.

I greeted him in a similar fashion and then asked, "Tah sen lle eman?" What is your name?

"Nar eman sen Ruthyn Shortbow, nar Dina Gem," the elf replied. Then he looked at my wyvern and asked, "Laia sen minx uruloki?" Who is that wyvern?

Mien sen Gaelira Wenada, tinu ar' Bizandra Retrina dul Bjart Gorganada," I replied, smiling pleasantly. "Mien sen nar uruloki. I'm going upstairs, if anyone wants me."

I flashed my wyvern marked palm at him. Then I turned to my friends and said, “Come, there are things I wish to show you.” I was aware of the others dispersing, moving away to other places.

Collin was first to speak. “Do you answer to anyone Gem?”

“Only to the council, though they do not really control me. They simply bring matters to my attention. I am the most highborn of all the elves in Nuban presently,” I said, smiling. Then I laughed at their bewildered faces. The clear sound of my laughter rang among the trees.

When my friends moved towards the stairs behind me, they were forced to stop. The guards were the ones responsible.

“You may not pass!” one elf said.

“We’re with Gem,” Collin protested.

“This tree is her’s and only her family may enter,” replied the guard coldly. “Now go back where you came from.”

Hearing the guards upraised voice, I turned where I was, ten meters up the tree, and moved down the stairs again. I was surprised by the guards actions. However I smugly hid that and looked at them all mildly when I reached them. “Is something wrong?”

The gaurd bowed to her and then said, “These humans tried to enter your sacred home. We told them to leave, but they will not. They say they are with you but we still cannot allow them to pass. What do you wish us to do, Your Highness?”

Collin seemed to be outraged. So I simply asked, “What is the reason as to why they cannot pass other than this is my home?”

“Well there is the similarity between Lindan Marcos-” the elf hissed the name “- and this boy.”

“I cannot allow you to hold that as a reason. I know Collin better than any other being alive.” I was infuriated at the mention of the human who had slain my parents.

“But still the rule-”

“Silta!” I snarled, rather annoyed. I thought for a moment. They had to obey me.

“Let them pass! They will live with me, in my tree. Do not stop them again!” I commanded. I really had had enough now.

“But Your Highness-”

“Do not disobey me!” I growled. They could tell I was displeased by them.

Once they were out of hearing range of the gaurds, I turned to face my freinds on the stairs. "I am sorry about what just happened. I've met the man you resemble, Collin, about-" I counted in my head "-two decades ago."

Sam's mouth dropped open. "How old really are you?"

"Let me see, in the human way of counting years, I was born in 2090," I replied, rather calm.

"But it's 3011 now. You cannot be thirtyone years old, Gem," Gemma said, awestruck. I laughed, I'd told them only a short while ago of my age.

I smiled mockingly. "That's exactly how old I am. How ever I am still but a teenager among the elves. Once I am fourty, I will be fully grown."

"I'm guessing you meant our father?" Collin asked.

"Yes. He obviously forgot me, else he would strike me now. I am quite helpless, there'd be no better chance for him to finish this unnescessary war he created. He's taken both my parents from me, why let me live?" I stopped attacking the human man with words. Then in a gentler voice, though I did shudder as I said the name, "Lindan Marcos-" I steadied myself "- is not a nice man. I am sorry for letting my own feelings about him escape me, Collin and Sam. Lle ena nen llye atar."

At his blank face at the elfish words i translated, "You are not your father."

"Oh," he said.

"Did any of you know that this tree has been here since my people first came ashore near this forest?" I asked, changing the subject. "We came here long before your kind came."Thats almost five thousand years ago, I neevr knew any trees lives that long," Collin said. The others also voiced theu surprise.

"I did not think that the elves had been here so long," Gemma said.

"In the elfin way of marking time, this is actually the year 7050. Your race is certainly shortlived compared to us." My voice turned hard again. "Had my parents not been slain somewhere in the last fifteen years,, my father would have been," I stopped, realising what the date was. "have turned three hundred today."

We reacehd the front door now, and I opened it. So many familiar scents rushed over to me. One was fresher than any other and I paled in shock. It was Bjart's scent, but how could that be? "Wait here," I muttered. "Some thing is not right."

They nodded and I shut the door behind them. Then following the scent I walked down the hallway. After searching for several minutes I heard a wyvern snort. I whirled around, as a male elf entered the room, through the window. His sudden appearence made me gasp. He stopped at the sound and turned to face me. I gasped again. It was my father, but how?

Then a green and white wyvern eye looked in at me, it was surrounded in green scales.

I could not help but laugh in surprise. "Atar! Bjart!' I exclaimed.

I blinked seevral times before I started crying. "How?" I asked, steadying myself. "You died though.""

No we were forced to fake it, or it would certainly have happened. Until I heard of you returning here, I never showed myself to anyone."

"Not even Nuala?"

His face fell. "No not even her." He sighed heavily. "My time as the king is over."

Then we heard quite a ruccuss above us, in the wyvern's area. We both ran that way, swiftly up the stairs. I was aware of my freinds starting in that same direction.

As soon as I go there, I rushed to Gaelira's side protectively. "En, Bjart! Han sen nar uruloki, dul uro danaa dina ar' Bizandra Retrina!" I hissed. "Llye dina!"

For Bjart had almost attacked my wyvern. He blinked and dipped his head, ashamed.

"Anen neeraa bin gia nar atema?" Bjart asked. "Neera endu orro ena exebun arn estellana."

"What did he say?" Gaelira asked me.

"Might I know the name of my daughter? I am sorry for behaving so rudely."

"Gaelira Wenada, atar Bjart Goganada," Gaelira responded, since I did not.

I wondered when you were going to hatch. You took more than a decade to hatch. Gem was only eleven when Bizandra actually laid you in your egg," Bjart said.

Gaelira snorted in amusement. I was surprised I had been so young when her egg was laid. Though, something told me that she had waited a lot longer to hatch than her type of wyvern normally did.

Which made no sense to me really. Why would she take so long to wait for me to come along? She had the chance to choose to be a wild wyvern, but she’d given that up for me. In a way I felt honored. I had been chosen by the only sun wyvern alive for, hopefully, the next three undred years.

“What made you want to wait for me?” I asked, looking at her in wonder. Sure I loved her, a lot, but still, I knew I was no powerful elf. What then drew her to me, out of all of the elves in this land?

“You were the one I was waiting for. You know what it means to be someone who is fair in their actions. Gem, I know you will be a great leader, and I know that no one else has what it takes to bring him down,” Gaelira replied.


Chapter 8 - Sword fighting!

The next day, I found a message in my room, accompanied by an old, worn sword.

Gem,

I borrowed this from an old friend so I can teach you. Bring it with you to the sparring fields as soon as you can. I'm already there so I shall meet you when you get there.

Love your father.

I was so pleased that he was impatient to continue on. It meant he must be ecstatic to be teaching me.

I noticed another letter as I picked up the ancient blade.

By the way,

Gaelira's already with Bjart. I'm confident you'll locate me,

Zelphar.

Again I smiled. My father never failed to remember anything. Only one quandary, I did not know how to get there on foot. That made me slightly apprehensive, but then my rational brain kicked in.

You previously knew the way. It's in your memories, a diminutive voice told me.

I instantaneously revisited the memories of my past, probing only for anything connected to those fields. Figuring out the path in my head, I got dressed and hung the sword from my waist. It was lighter that I thought it would be.

Then I left my house, planning to spend time with my friends, both elf and human after I trained. After all, the three humans were legitimately in my care, Nuala hadn't time for them now. I'd instruct them all about my kind, and they'd be educated like me about weapons. All this; I had intended for them.

I moved quickly through the trees, fervent to be taught yet again. It was second nature for me to run, it was so simple. In fact not much entirely gained my concentration, except my gift.

In five human minutes later I was at my destination.

To find my father was simple, he was fighting three elves at once. I watched as Haemir, Drannor and Jhaer ducked and weave around him, trying to best him. The third elf was a shock; she was remarkably witty placing her blows.

Her blade moved so much swifter than Haemir's and Drannor's. I wondered if Drannor was using his gift. Drannor's attacks seemed so precise; they more or less touched one of the others.

Then Jhaer disengaged from the fight, pulling Haemir with her. Drannor and my father broke apart a second later. None of them were out of breath.

I quickly walked over to them. Jhaer and Haemir nodded respectfully to me as they mounted their individual wyverns. Drannor had sheathed his old looking sword and came walking across to me. He greeted me with a kiss as my father watched the wyverns fly off.

That little kiss made me redden a great deal on the cheeks. The only reason I knew this was because my cheeks felt hotter than usual as my blood rushed to them. I was chagrined by that short show of embarrassment. In some way he always made me go red in the face when he did that.

"Sorry Gem," he murmured quietly in my ear.

Then my father turned us and said, "You're here early Gem." His face showed nothing different so I guessed I was not red in the cheeks now.

"I want to be trained, that is all," I informed him. I smiled and then escaped Drannor's arms and sped over to give my father a giant cuddle. Drannor watched me peacefully then turned and left the fields.

So I watched and mimicked my fathers various attacks, listening to his instructions. Slowly but surely they became more and more intricate.

A number of days later, my father said, with a small dare in his voice, "Lets see how good you are then."

I knew the implication behind his pleasant words and drew the borrowed blade yet again.

Then my father's sword rushed at me and I only just managed to block his strike. How speedy he is, I thought, endeavoring to return the blow hurriedly. My sword was brushed away like an annoying fly. The force behind my father's attacks often threw me off balance. Time and time again I managed to steady myself and attack back, each time paying more concentration. Every time Sylleth's razor sharp edge should have touched me, my father stopped his attack before it did. I knew that if I were human, I would have had some broken bones.

Finally we stopped and I was out of breath and exhausted. I knew my kind rarely got tired by this sort of activity, but I did not yet feel accustomed to wielding a sword. My father was cheerful at me when I at last looked at him, beaten. I knew I had lost this time.

"You were really good sweetheart," he praised me.

"Diolla atar," I replied. Thanks father.

Five or six weeks passed and still I could not disarm him. There was the noticeable increase in my fitness rate, I was not exhausting as easily and could spar for hours with no rest. Days went by that I did not really want to discontinue. I did not only spar with my father, but with Drannor and other elves.

It was obvious I was a fast learner, and soon came a day where I and my father simply stood, swords drawn, facing each other.

This time we were not merely sparring with each other, we had an audience. Drannor, Haemir, Jhaer, the wyverns, Nuala, Ashlere, Sam, Collin and of course, Gemma sat watching.

"Be careful Gem," Sam squealed like a typical girl.

For this fight, my mind was deeply shielded; I did not want Drannor prying while I fought. My gift studied the fight to come and I knew exactly how we'd proceed, and cease.  Thanks to my using my gift to its full capacity, which was seeing my father's attacks before they came and how I attacked back, I knew I would win.

Then we started, and my father initiated the fight as I'd foreseen, slashing at my ribs. Quick as lightning, I blocked him and stopped Sylleth in its tracks. Then I slashed at his legs. He made to block me and I promptly altered my attack so that it aimed for his ribs.

We persistently fought like this for another eight minutes. Then it all came to an end, neither of us were scathed. My sword, still the lent one, rested lightly on my own father's collarbone. He froze and I leisurely lowered the sword away from him.

"I cannot believe you've beaten me. I've known swordplay for over two centuries, and you only have for a number of weeks. This is the first time in a long time since I've been crushed, in such an elegant manner," my father declared.

I hugged my father, once he'd put his sword away. "I've been training myself to use magic in my free time father."

My father looked at me thoughtfully and then chuckled, "You are finished training then. There is no more for me to teach you."

So I decided to spend the rest of the day with Drannor. He was eager to have a good time; I'd have a bit more spare time now that I was over and done with training.

We also spent time with Sam and Collin. Tiatha had taken a massive fancy to Gemma, and often asked to look after her. After considering if Gemma liked Tiatha, I'd approved Tiatha to look after Gemma for the rest of her upbringing. I knew Gemma would be safe with Tiatha, I saw her often enough.

All I really wanted was to be alone with Drannor. Handsome Drannor, who oft had girls chasing him. My life had returned back to its old, pre-human years self. The days spent in Adurna were only a bunch of indistinct memories now.

I was truly home. And it was heaven in the city for me at least. Always if I was not with Drannor, when I ventured out of the city, an armed guard came with me, for my own protection.


Chapter 7

One day, I'd gone for a ride on one of our finely bred horses. My guard had left me earlier, at my request. I'd wanted time unaccompanied to think, and plan. I was now very much by myself, and on the way home.

It was on the verge of twilight, where had the time disappeared to? I admonished myself for staying out so late into the afternoon, outside of Anthatal's shielding fortifications.

It was hushed in the bush, which was quite typical of this time of day. Most of the animals were back in their dens, with their children. I was usually safe in the city at this time. The only sound was my horses hooves as they struck the earth.

I felt my horse leap over something without warning. The unanticipated jump unseated me, and I clung to his mane as he soared through the air. Then he was striding away from the fallen log and I regained my seat which I had so momentarily lost.

The darkness in the surrounding woods slowly increased. As the shadows lengthened, I said, "Anga rah! Anga!”

To help him increase the span of his stride, I bent down low over his hot neck. With one hand I held my sword still so it did not repeatedly whack him on the sides or rump.

I'm not quite home Gaelira,' I said. 'See you in half an hour.'

'I'm watching from the walls. I know you'll be safe,' Gaelira said, a little austerely. I could tell she was worried about my location, but I understood that.

My horse stopped as we reached a divide in the trail. Two different paths now split off in front of us. I eyed both speculatively. With assurance a split second later, I told my fearless charger to go along the left one. I knew it was the way home, even though under no circumstances had I been out of the city at this time, in particular alone.

All did seem well, though I knew it was taking longer to get home than normal. Quickly I searched the bush around us for any menace lurking in advance with both mind and eye. I saw naught with my gift which was unsettling.

"Rekka!" screeched a male voice. Die.

With a loud shriek, my horse tumbled to the ground. I leapt from him as he did, and landed like a cat on the balls of my feet gracefully. My eyes raked the surrounding bush for the speaker, whose voice turned my blood to ice.

Then twenty orc's ran towards me, weapons raised. My head spun around, sizing the ugly enemies up. All of them seemed very young, but this did not make me fear them, or care about them. They were the elves mortal enemies. They would depart this life by my sword or they had to slay me. Very speedily they spread out, blocking all my likely escape routes.

They did not attack, but watched me rather warily. One stepped forwards from his -was it a male or not? It was hard to tell- companions and said in a curt voice, "Our master wishes to see you."

His tone of voice is not the one, I thought. How did they get into my woods? Only an elf can-

The orc snarled, pounded his fists together and said, "We do not linger good-naturedly, elf!"

"Oh I know that. Enemies we are and for good reason. You do not care for me, nor I you!"

My words were not meant to be careless; they simply were a forewarning I knew of their kind. I studied the leader critically. His face was heavily scarred, and one of his eyes was missing. One ear was squashed too, and his teeth were filed to points. Quite ugly, if you ask me.

"I will not go with you to your leader." Remembering one insult I'd learnt for a situation like this, I hissed, "llye ena fin divana ar' Marcos!" I knew he knew what it meant. You are the servants of Marcos!

The orc bared his teeth furiously at my infuriating insult. Then he attacked me savagely. To my incredulity, I did not see that approaching with my gift; I did not seem to be able to see them with it. Quickly I dodged the attack and drew my sword. I soon had him lifeless at my feet. Tauntingly I looked at his companions, daring them with my eyes.

They came at me in pairs, hoping to wear me out. Some of them I slew with magic, others with my blade. The spells I used to kill them were simple, they did not require much strength.

For a small number of seconds, my eyes rested on the marvelous lifeless horse that had ever so enthusiastically carried me. Then a stick snapped behind me and I spun around, sword still in my hand. A tall man watched me, with a naked rapier in hand.

Ah so this is the man to blame for slaughtering my horse, I realized, as the man stepped forward into the vanishing final light of the sun. But he's human, I thought, quite horror-struck. And he's only young. My eyes ran up and down his body.

Then the man struck at me with his blade. I snarled and dodged nimbly. In a shower of sparks my blade met his, as we circled, stabbing at and blocking each other. It started to become frustrating when I could not touch him. How can he block me? Elves are so much faster than humans, I thought to myself, attacking again.

My gift proved to be of little help, he kept changing his attack at the last moment. Eventually I began to tire and dreaded the fact he would possibly kill me. Still I struggled to fend off his attacks.

I canno t continue like this, I realised. Continually fighting mans attacks off, I fixed a picture of my father in my mind. I had to implement a little spell he'd taught me for occasions such as this. Then I reached into my pocket and raised a swan feather up above my head.

"Taragrifae," I hissed.

As my strength was sapped by the spell, the man hissed a spell of his own. I tumbled to the ground, as his spell pushed me. I had neither the time nor the strength to shield myself from him. The man's face was drawn into a feral snarl.

"Likamaei," the cold voice said.

My ankles instantaneously snapped together and refused to part. My wrists were in the same predicament.

'Gaelira help me,' I called frantically.

'I am already approaching,' was her counter. She sent me an image of her soaring above the foliage.

Then my left over strength ebbed away and the last thing I saw was the man glowering down at me. Then all went black.


Chapter 8

When I finally came to, I felt very uncomfortable all over. Then I tried to sit up. It would take a great effort to do so I gave up. Rather maddening for me, I did not like the fact I'd lost command of my own body. Something was holding me like this, but I could neither see nor feel anything impairing my body. At last I managed to raise my head up, but that was all.

Swiftly I looked down the length of my body. There was zilch visible binding me in place. I saw that I lay on a cold, hard marble table. It also came to my awareness that the worn leather curved sheath on my side was empty.

Where am I? I wondered.

It was a rather gloomy room and the only light that came in was from a single beam of moonlight that fell on my face. It came from a tiny barred skylight that was set high in the wall. From where I was, I could not see out of the window.

Then a bitter, extraordinarily feminine voice that rang crystal clear like an elf's said, "Langmar."

There was a noisy clank, and I heard a door swing open somewhere nearby. Then a tall woman came into sight as I looked timidly towards the sound.

"Hello young elf," the woman greeted me unkindly. Yes it was her that the voice came from, I recognised it.

I simply looked at her dismally. My eyes took in her exterior, tall, slender, mud brown hair. The colour was very unusual to me. Her eyes were blood red, which was truly terrifying for me to see.

"Wh... where am I?" I asked almost mutely. I was certainly panicky now.

"In King Marcos'-" I heard the way she said the name with respect, "- country. This little cell is in Ciarbera."

How in Nuban did I get here? I wondered. Then my mind replayed what had happened only hours, maybe days ago. I made a face in horror. "Be glad I was not the one who captured you. I simply sent that man after you," the woman said. Then she spun on her heel and with obvious grace floated from the room.

"Langwick," I heard her mutter as she shut the door. No doubt she'd just locked the door.

That gave me something to deliberate about. She was as graceful as my kind, but definantly not an elf. It was obvious she was not fully human either. Thinking about those thoughts, I fell asleep.

I was next awoken by the woman unlocking the door.

Here she comes again, I thought.

This time, you're not the one asking the questions. I am," the woman said. "My king wishes to learn something's that only you can tell us."

I don't think I can lend a hand with that, I thought. Then I replied to her lightly, "I greatly doubt that I can really help."

"Ackaro!" snarled the woman. She pointed at my left arm.

A second later I yelped as her spell made a shallow cut in my lower arm. My blood felt extremely hot on my cold skin as it ran around my arm and dripped onto the table.

I looked up when the woman hissed hungrily as my blood started to come out. Her blood red eyes flashed in excitement.

Uh oh, that's not good, my mind told me. Since when did one of then live here in Nuban?

Though things were starting to fit together in my head as to what the woman was, I still did not fully comprehend.

"Now where is the wyvern I know you ride?" asked the woman. I could tell that she was not really interested in questioning me; her eyes seemed to burn as she watched my blood dry.

Hastily I lied, "I ride no wyvern. The only wyvern I know of is Rhothilion, King Marcos!"

"Seetha!" the woman hissed.

Something like ice grappled with my mind. I knew it was the woman and I fought to withstand her attack. I shrieked as she shrugged past my defences.

I can't allow her to catch a glimpse of Gaelira, I thought in protest. Swiftly I began to refocus my defence around all my memories of Gaelira. As I did, I tried not to provoke the woman's suspicion.

"Don't bother," the woman said, "I got much more than I needed."

Oh dear, I hope she does not know of my gift or Drannor's one either, I thought.

Ackaro." I yelped as the cut on my slender arm became twice its original length. The woman's eyes burned again at the smell of my blood fresh in the air. "Don't lie to me elf," the woman hissed and then left again.

That deadly, beautiful voice left me in a bit more of a trance. I finally got out of it. Hmm, her eyes had brightened at the time she hurt me. She got excited about the scent of my blood. Her movements were elegant and fast. A picture started to form in my head.

h great, I thought sarcastically. She's one of them.

'One of what?' Gaelira inquired unexpectedly.

'Gaelira?' I asked in relief.

'Who else has my voice?' Gaelira mused.

'Can Drannor speak through you Gaelira? I need his help,' I asked.

'I'll let him into my mind.' She fell silent.

Then a voice I missed so much came through from her, 'Gem?'

'Drannor,' I replied sighing mentally.

'What's going on?' he asked. 'Where are you?'

'In Ciarbera. They're torturing me for information. There's a vampire involved, I know it,' I replied swiftly, wincing as my arm stang.

'We'll come and get you straight away,' Drannor replied. 'Don't give any information to them if you can help it.'

But I already had, the vampire had read my mind by force. I could not say that though to Drannor, it would be wrong. 'I won't.'

The next day, the vampire came again into my cell. The foul leech used magic to lift me into the air, and then toss me like a rag doll to the ground.

I vehemently refused to lie on my back. So the woman kicked me over and I gasped as her freezing, barefoot collided powerfully with my back. Then magic bound me in place again.

Time for more of this torment, I thought. What is it going to be this time? I grimaced at the sore spot that was bound to be a bruise soon.

“I heard that you sent a feather somewhere before my man had fully exhausted you. Where did you send it and why?"

I smirked at the vampire as I thought of a smart response. It did not matter how much I got hurt, friends were coming for me soon. I'd rather die, than tell the truth, I thought. Quickly I looked up at her and lied, "I do not know what you're talking about."

The vampire rested her foot on my wrist and pressed her weight onto it. With a sickening snapping sound, my wrist broke. I yelled at the sudden pain, completed expected from the bloodsucker.

Days went by and still I endured. Though, the vampire's control was weakening. She would not last much longer before draining me.

"Tell me the location of your home, girl," the vampire demanded.

"Never, you'd never get in anyway," I snarled.

"Woil hack akaro dep," the vampire hissed.

I screamed as a deep cut ran down my arm, opening any half healed cuts that it touched. I screamed again as it did the same on the other side of my arm. Bright crimson blood poured from my arm, and for the first time I felt weakened.

My eyes sought the vampire's almost black ones, and I was horrified to see the hunger that shone in them. It seemed she was struggling against her instincts and almost losing.

Then she whirled around and snarled irately, "How did you get in here?"

I peeked passed her to see Drannor and Haemir looking at her, both of them scowling.

"How about we heard her screaming," Drannor spat back, indicating me with his hand. There was obvious rage in his voice as he spoke to the monster.

"Now you're going to find out exactly how agonizing it was for us to hear," Haemir declared, drawing his blade.

The woman chuckled. "More prey for me."

Drannor simply sidestepped her lunge, and moved quickly over to me. "Gem," he said worriedly.

I felt the magic holding me decrease in strength. I instantly sat up, scowling in pain. Haemir must be fighting, I thought.

"Easy sweetheart," Drannor said soothingly. "Haemir's got this under control."

"That thing will slay him, it was going to eradicate me," I stuttered.

"Haemir's clever enough that it won't get a chance," Drannor assured me. He tenderly picked me up, cradling me in his hands. "I've got to get you to Gaelira. Haemir's going to bait the parasite to her." With that he started to run. I was quite aware of his lilac scent as he moved.

Soon I was up in Gaelira's saddle, and heard hurrying feet. Haemir darted towards Ackron. As soon as the leech caught my scent and swerved towards me, Gaelira reared and let loose a sparkling jet of white flames.

The vampire shrieked and writhed in pain as she was consumed by the flames. Gaelira leapt into the air, and soared away, followed by Ackron.


Chapter 9

Several days past by in peace. Drannor and I seemed inseparable.

Every day I'd spend three hours sparring, with different elves, always learning. Soon it became common knowledge that I could not be beaten.

This was an achievement that elves generally earned over time. It had only taken me a few days. I was the best with a sword for my age. Some of the time I used my gift, but rarely. It was good not to, because it meant that I could win without deception.

Though my father said that Drannor could not stay in the house after a certain time, he always crept back in after Zelphar went to bed.

One night, when I was spending a rather romantic evening away from home with Drannor, we had a serious talk with each other.

"I think there's something more than friendship that brought us together," I said.

"Of course there is. Our fates are meant as one, Gem," Drannor laughed.

Could he not stay out of my head right now? It was -

"Sorry love, it's hard not to pay attention to your thoughts," Drannor apologised quickly.

"Hard not to hear me? How?" I was intrigued by that little idea.

"I've become quite firmly attuned to your mind," he offered as an explanation.

I guess that makes sense, I thought. I smiled at him, truly happy to be with him. "I don't think we'll ever part," I muttered.

"I think you'd see it coming before it happened," Drannor teased me. His clever reminder about my gift amused me.

"There are some holes in my gift. I can't see anything unless a decision is made," I said. That truly annoyed me, it was pointless watching Lindan marcos. I was currently watching so many things, on the alert for any danger. Mainly any threat, he threw at us.

My mind strayed for a moment. "Drannor, you don't suppose Lindan Marcos is aware of my gift?"

"He might be, if that vampire got anything out of you, which I hope she did not," Drannor assured me.

"That parasite would have only been new to that way of life, she was younger than me," I mumbled. "She slipped through the borders."

Then my eyes glazed over briefly.
***

About twenty or more vampires sat on white warhorses, facing my army. Behind them, over two thousand men sat on their horses waiting.

Drannor and I were both on wyverns, I with Gaelira, Drannor with a younger wyvern.

Two wyverns faced us in the air. One was massive, blue scaled and red eyed. The other was steel grey in body, violet eyed, smaller than Gaelira. Gaelira's fury rushed through me at the sight of him.

***

"What happened?" Drannor asked, his arms around me, they were gentle but very hard.

"Another vision, we can deal with it in due time," I replied. I shook my head to clear it. "It's not anything happening for a while yet," I assured him. I kept my thoughts neutral, so he would not anything new with his gift. Instead I occupied my mind with the idea he'd not finished about our fates. Could he have been right? Were we meant to be together? It seemed to be alright, we'd had no trouble with each other, ever.

Our conversation turned pleasant. and it seemed that both of us were  very pleased with each other anyway, this time.

More time passed and we soon found that things could easily go up another level. Well I found out anyway this time.

We were alone, yet again, and Drannor seemed unusually jumpy for some reason.

"What’s wrong with you, Drannor?" I asked. I was only getting flickers of his plans, nothing that I could follow.

"Gem, I want to ask you something, but please, will you answer me true to your own feelings?" Drannor asked.

"With a gift like yours against me, I doubt I would get away with anything," I replied. "But yes, I will."

So Drannor took my hand in his and walked around to face me. I watched curiously as he lowered himself down onto one knee, eyes not leaving my own.
What is he doing? I wondered.

"Gem Hawksong, Princess of Nuban, I promise to love you ans look after you as long as we're together. Will you honour me, by becoming my mate?" He looked up through his cobalt blue eyes as he spoke, eyes gentle and patient.

For a minute I quickly threw up an impenetrable shield around my mind. I needed to think, without his gift penetrating me. This was a big choice to make; after all, it would hurt him a lot if I said no. Was he the one for me?

I knew the answer to that question. How to say it was another question entirely. Finally I made a decision. Leaving the barrier up in my mind, I said quietly, "Drannor, you know I feel that way as well. You know my answer, love."

He smiled and then stood up. "We better tell Zelphar about this."

Oh no, thats going to be hard, I thought, horror struck at the idea.

"Don't worry he already knows this is coming for him one day or another," Drannor soothed me.

"I still dont think this is a good idea," I muttered. I then lost control of my own thoughts as he kissed me lightly. "Fine, lets go to my father." I smiled a little. I guess its best to tell him now.

So we walked back to my home, and I was pleased to see that Bjart was crouched below the tree, talking to my wyvern.

Gaelira turned her carnelian eyes on me as soon as I got closer. "You look rather flustered, Gem," she said, appraisingly.

"Soon you'll know why. Father's about to get a bit of a shock," I replied.

Drannor's hand shifted to around my waist, and though I usually flinched habitually, this time I did not. I suppose I must have recently gotten used to him doing that.

Soon we were heading up the stairs, and I opened the front door. "Dad, are you there?"

"I'm in the study, honey," my father called. There was something similar to fright in his voice, which alarmed me.

"What's he frightened of?" I asked Drannor in an undertone.

Drannor concentrated, and then growled under his breath. "They have some nerve coming here."

"What?"

"A bloodsucker, things just got awkward for me. I think I'll wait out here while you deal with them, else things could get ugly. There are actually four of them in there. Your father's trying to keep them entertained until you get in there." He sighed. "He can't give them entrance into Nuban himself. That authority is not his to give anymore."

"Are my friends in there?" I was slightly surprised by what he had just told me.

"Yes, they are scared stiff of the vampires. Zelphar's defending them right now," Drannor spoke after a moment's silence.

I quickened my pace and hurried t the room my father said he was in now.


Chapter 10

As I reached the study's closed door, I squared my shoulders and paused, to quiet my breath.

Then I strode in, very aware that they would be alert to the scent of my blood. Hopefully they would not all react in the same fashion as the female I'd encountered once before.

I smiled as I entered and looked around. Zelphar and the children were together, sitting near the end of the embroidery, in front o the last image on it. The four vampires were on foot, watching my father. They turned unhurriedly to face me as my scent evidently hit them. My father looked up as I entered.

"Atar Zelphar," I said courteously. What had been one reason for looking for him had become another. Even so, once this was sorted, I'd tell him of the old reason.

"Ah, my daughter, I'm relieved you're here," Zelphar said, standing up and giving me a hug.

"I already know what is going on, thanks to Drannor," I informed him.

My eyes then moved to linger on the four vampires in the room, simply studying them. It astonished me that their eyes were a grassy green, unlike the blood red ones I'd earlier seen.

"Father, Drannor, could you please let me talk to them alone?" I asked. Drannor had come in, contrary to his own words.

My father nodded and led my frightened friends from the room. Drannor's eyes widened possibly fear in them.

Drannor, go, I'll be fine," I said. His eyes turned gloomy, but he followed my father away. I knew he'd be listening in.

Listen to my thoughts if you must, I thought. I saw his head shift as if to nod as he made to shut the door. But don't interfere unless I call you with my mind. He nodded as he shut the door.

I then turned my attention fully to the vampires near me. I smiled at them as I moved across the room, past them to one of the chairs. "Please, have a seat," I said in a friendly voice.

I took the seat my father had been in, it was mine after all. The vampires did so, but only after the red haired male did. That made me realize that he was the leader of the group.

Greetings, Princess," The red haired male said.

"The same to you," I replied. His voice was beautiful, it rang like a bell.

"We did not expect a friendly greeting from you. Only because we can see the marks another of our kind left on your arm," the red haired vampire said. He then introduced his family. The blond female was Sylvia his mate, Jakaen was the blond male and the mate of the black haired female, Luala.

I smiled at each in turn, and then said, "Well, you know who I am. Why did you come here to my lands?" I was curious about this; I had to say whether they had to leave or could stay.

"We came here, because others did," Sylvia answered.

"I know they are not like my family, many years have past since any of us dared attack a human or elf," Barrain said.

"We are no threat to the people here," Jakaen added.

Hang on a moment, if they do not hunt us, then what do they hunt? I wondered.

Luala snickered. "You wonder about our diet?"

My eyes flashed to hers as I was startled by her question. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

I have a particular gif-"

"Oh, I know the gift of which you speak, my mate has the same gift," I told her.

"Well then, that is a surprise. I had no idea that anyone else, human, elf, or our kind had it as well," Luala trilled, surprised. "As for our diet, we hunt only animals. Its enough to keep us satisfied."

"I suppose I could allow your family to stay, but only here in the city. Also I must discourage you from hunting any wyverns in this forest," I warned.

"Why would that be?" Sylvia inquired.

"The wyverns here are bonded to certain elves around us. I would be one of them. To kill a wyvern, would kill an elf. This is why I say you cannot hunt them," I explained calmly.

"We will not hunt them, ever," Barrain promised.


Chapter 11

A little while later, Drannor came back into the tree so we could talk to my father about what we'd earlier decided.

My father did seem wary when he came over to us. I heard Drannor laugh under his breath at something. Apparently my father had thought something funny to Drannor's mind.

"La stella lusin ni fin gia du lye engame, Zelphar Nightstar," Drannor said, smiling.

"Father, we have something to tell you. Please, be open minded about it," I said, smiling nervously.

My father smiled, looking at Drannor somewhat worriedly.

"I may use my gift, but unless it is necessary, I won't react to your thoughts," Drannor reassured him.

My father relaxed a good deal now. "What do you want to tell me, kids?"

"Zelphar, I know I went about this wrong. However since Gem has already said yes to me, I knew it was best to tell you," Drannor said confidently.

My father’s eyes now turned to look at me. One of his eyebrows rose curiously.

"We're getting married, dad," I stammered.

"You're sure Drannor's the one for you, Gem? Wasn't there anyone else that you might have chosen?" My fathers voice sounded a little stunned.

Quickly I started to focus my mind searching both my past and future for anyone else. Haemir had won me briefly for a year, but that was before I met Drannor. Five other years had past and Drannor had been with me for all of them. I had then spent fifteen miserable years in Adurna, among the humans. There was no one in my past that compared to Drannor.

Now I turned my mind to the future. It flashed in an instant, to a new vision, of my wedding. Where before I could not figure out who I had chosen, Drannor’s face was clear at the other end of the aisle.

"No dad, there is no one else in the rest of eternity," I said confidently. "Drannor is the only one I see in my future in that particular role."

"What about Haemir?"

"No dad, he has no chance right now. I know you'd have preferred him, but I don't. He's only a half elf. Drannor is the only one I really want."

"You're only thirty one, not even an adult yet," my father protested.

"We cannot afford to wait until I am an adult to finish this war, father. Marcos could strike at any time, and I might miss his decision to. I want to attack him before he has that chance," I replied. "Sooner the better for that I believe."

"You're right sweetheart. I'm just surprised that you're choosing to do this so early in your life, that’s all," Zelphar told us.


Chapter 12

The next morning when I woke up, I saw Gaelira looking in at me through the window.

"What is it, Gaelira?" I asked, moving over to the window.

"I have something for you," she said, then she flew up a little higher so she could pass me something with one of her shorter front legs.

"I found it in my mother's cave," she said. "Bjart told me to give it to you, so it could hatch. The grey and purple one is my own."

"Thanks Gaelira," I murmured, "but you didn't have to give me your first egg."

"I want you to win this war," she replied simply.

***

Later that day all the elves who wanted to have a chance at getting a wyvern to hatch gathered. Drannor was one of the elves in the queue though a fair way back, behind Collin. I had wished him luck, before going to stand with the other Uruohtars. I stood a little way in front of them though, two of the vampires on either side of me. They had wanted some way of proving they were trustworthy, so I had asked them to do this. Drannor disapproved a lot.

I'd brought out both of the eggs, and was more than ready to have someone new to train myself. Gaelira moved to crouch behind me, defensively. She was the only one allowed close to me other than Barrain and Jakaen.

"Elves and humans here in Anthatal, I know that two of you is destined to become and Uruohtar like those behind me. I do not know however whether they will be human or elf, or one of either race," I said brightly.

"A human! But they are weak and could betray us!" cried an elf man. Then outcries continued on, fury in every voice.

Gaelira roared in fury and everyone was quiet.

"Listen to me once and for all. The humans here in this city are friends to me. They are not as useless as we elves, vain as we sometimes are, think," I thundered. "Every single one of you has the right to touch these!"

With that I muttered a spell and placed the eggs in front of me for them all to see. Slowly to queue of people filed past, each pausing with a hand on either egg to see if the rough shells would shudder.

Soon it came to Collin's turn. He actually greeted me and then touched the eggs. He had started to move off when the steel grey and purple egg shuddered.

"Cohnal, wait," I said quickly, eyes on the egg.

"He turned around straight away. "What is it?" he asked. I could tell he was confused.

"Look at the egg," I said brightly.

It shook harder this time, more visible to people further from it.

"Why is it shaking like that?" Collin's voice showed his disbelief.

"I believe it has chosen you," I replied. "Welcome to the ranks of the Uruohtar's Cohnal."

He took the egg and moved to sit next to his sister while the egg hatched. My attention was now on the second egg, Drannor had now reached me.

"La stella lusin ni fin gia du lye engame, Llye Alusa," Drannor's voice said.

I simply smiled at him, not letting on to anyone about who he was to me.

Then Drannor rested his hand on the black and gold egg in-between us.  He yelped a minute later as if a bee had stung him.

My eyes widened at the sound. It seemed that only the elves reacted in such a way to being chosen. Then something drew on my strength as the eggs hatched, it was my spell.

I repeated the words I had said to Cohnal, as Drannor moved a little way off. My voice was calm and pleased, hiding the pride inside me. My chosen mate had been chosen by a wyvern. This had only happened once before, for my parents.


Chapter 13

Whenever Drannor and I were apart the next day, I was busy forging my chosen gift for him. I was careful to shield my mind though and it often drove him mad.

For I was planning on giving him a sword that matched his wyvern's hide. The blade would be curved, as was the typical shape of our swords, and down it would be the inscription, I love you, Drannor. The hand guard of the sword would be back, and the blade gold. The hand guard would be the same topaz colour as his eyes and would be shaped like two wyverns with their heads thrown back ready to belch fire.

The sheath of the sword was another matter entirely. It was going to be a darker gold colour, but not the same gold as his wyvern was in part.

The words on the blade would be black. The blade was going to be exceptionally slim as well. As for the gem that would make up the pommel, it would be a piece of topaz.

At the same time, my gift kept trying to guess what he was going to give me. There was one clearer picture and that was of a gleaming, white diamond bladed, carnelian handled sword but who forged it was still a mystery.

One of the elder sword makers had agreed to help me forge the sword. She knew that it was a special gift for my mate, everyone knew about our imminent marriage now.

My father was the responsible one there. He'd told a few friends and others had heard. Now every elf in Anthatal knew that Nuala's adopted son had won the elfin Princess' hand. It was worthless denying it, as if I did, the elves talked to my father.

I soon reached the forge and the elf immediately let me in. One of the first things she said to me was, "I remember the day that I helped your mother forge Sylleth for your father. I also had the pleasure of doing the same for King Sudryl for his mate."

That really made me wonder how old she was. My grandfather, King Sudryl, had lived over three hundred years ago. It seemed that more than one member of my family had come to her for help. I was not the first.

Quickly I described the sword I wished to make. The elf agreed on how I wanted it to look, she actually sketched it onto a piece of clear glass with magic as I described it. I looked on, as the sword appeared colored and everything.

"This is the sword you wish to make is it not?" the elf asked.

"Yes, that is it," I said. "Its as if you took it from my mind."

"No: merely your description. It's a magnificent looking sword," the elf replied.

We both then heard someone moving up to the door of the forge. As the elf hastened away to go get the door, I hissed, "In case it’s Drannor, shield your mind!"

The elf nodded to me and then slipped out of sight. I had to heavily guard my own mind, not liking that at all while she talked. It was Drannor and he wanted the elf to help him with something. She simply told him to come back tomorrow as she was presently busy.

I called Bjart over when she asked me to and I had called him because I needed Gaelira to be doing what she always was, spending every free moment with Ackron, so Drannor did not get suspicious of where I was.

The elf had Bjart break a long rod of what seemed to be white metal into two pieces, one a meter long, the other's length did not matter as she put it away. We then worked together to get it done as soon as we could. Usually she would have taken two days to get the sword done, but with my help for the easier parts we got it done in one day.

She actually sent me to find Neldor, who should be shedding his skin today and bring him to the forge. She then told him of what was going on and he happily agreed to us using a few of his hard smooth small scales for the handle.

"Thank you, Neldor," I said when he left.

"Don't mention it, my Queen," the wyvern fledgling chuckled.

Not long after the sword was finished and sunset would not be far off. The elf offered to keep the sword until tomorrow night for me, so Drannor did not discover it.

I thanked her and quickly walked to the sparring fields where I knew Drannor would be. He was sparring, against two other elves. I watched as he duelled. He finished the fight a few minutes after I got to the fields. Then he turned around and was by my side in an instant.

"Hey honey," he said, kissing me gently.

"Hey Drannor," I said, smiling wearily. I was tired. "How's your day been?"

"Alright, it got better though when you got here. I missed you sweetheart. Where have you been?"

"I have been helping to plan our wedding. You're fortunate you don’t have to help with that. You just have to be there on the day."

"When's it going to be?" Drannor asked curiously.

"Not tomorrow, but the day after," I informed him. "I have something else to do before I meet you back at the tree in a little while okay?"

"Sure," he laughed.

I left, and hurried to where the dress was being made. We all worked hard for a few hours and it was done. It was so beautiful.


Chapter 14 – The Big Day

When I woke up in two days time my father was sitting in my room waiting for me to wake up.

“Atar,” I sighed rolling over so I could see him. It felt good to have woken up, I knew what today was. My wedding was today and it felt like today had taken an eternity to come.

“Tinu,” Zelphar replied. “I came to see if you were awake, to find you’re still in bed on one of the biggest days of your life.”

I sat up and slowly got out of bed. “I can’t believe today’s finally come,” I remarked. “Go get ready father. Tiatha will be here shortly.”

Zelphar hugged me and then said, “I’ll be back in an hour or so dear. It’s a big day for you today.”

He left my room, shuting the door behind him. I quickly changed into some normal clothes. Less than a minute later, Collin and Sam came in to me.

“You two know what you’re wearing?” I asked. I had their clothes in my closet.

“No what are we wearing?” Sam asked. Ashlere came prancing in, followed Nuala and by her mother..

I quickly fished out their clothes and passed them to the twins.

Nuala was wearing a beautiful red gown already, and her mahogany hair was already in an elaborate bun on her head. “Time to get ready Princess,” she said.

“Is it already?” I muttered, stunned.

“Yes,” Laura replied. “You slept in too late. The wedding is in two hours.”

I yelped with disbelief at her statement. It would take longer than that for me to be ready. “On no,” I complained.

“It would take me three hours to get you ready on my own, but Nuala and Laura said they will help me,” Tiatha replied .

“I am ever so sorry about that,” I said. I felt like a fool, why didi I have to oversleep on a day like today that was important to me?

Then I became of a ruckus coming from a room upstairs that I knew Drannor was in getting ready.

“No father, I am not coming home. Our kingdom can be ruled by someone else. I belong here in Anthatal,” Drannor’s outraged voice came to us as we all chatted working together.

“Son, you belong with us. Your mother is dying. I came because you are her named heir,” a male voice said, somewhat calm. “These elves are not our allies, son.”

“I don’t care. Thirty years I have spent here in exile. Now you wish me to return? I know the Cyan Elf laws. I cannot return,” Drannor hissed.

“If you were any other elf that would be truth. We can withdraw it just for you,” the other elf hissed.

“My loyalty is to the elves here and my soon-to-be-wife. Can we please put this discussion on hold until tomorrow? It would be more suitable then.”

“Very well. For today I shall simply observe the goings on here. I will greet this elf whom you love. It is true that it is your choice even if you did choose one of these vain, spiteful Garnet Elves.”

“Her name is Gem!” Drannor said defensively.

Just what were the Cyan and the Garnet Elves? Why had Drannor been answered? Who was the elf talking to him like that? I knew it was not Galan Evandari, Nuala’s mate.

Everyone in the room seemed oblivious to what I had over heard. Then again I was the only one not saying much.

Soon we were all done and it was almost time to go. I heard Drannor and the others in his room leave and knew that it was almost time.

That made me grimace. Why was it I had a sinking feeling in my stomach? “Hopefully you’re right,” I muttered.

The wedding was being held in the huge open floor of Ievos Hall. Outside, behind the hall, the reception would take place. I had hidden my gift there, waiting for me where I would sit. As we reached the forest floor, I heard quite an irate voice coming from near the hall.

“You may certainly not enter! Enemy you are, the greatest of our enemies!” cried an outraged male voice.

“Zelphar Nightstar is it? My father was there for your mates parents wedding,” argued a soft voice. No elf sounded that way, so I deduced it was a human.

“That changes nothing though it is not my decision to make. I’ll just go see the person can,” my father said.

I heard him walking towards us all. He stopped not far from us, staring at me. “Oh wow Gem, don’t you look breathtaking?”

“Diolla lle atar,” I replied. “What’s going on?”

My fathers face hardened and then he said, “Lindan Marcos is here. He wants to be part of the wedding celebrations. His father was welcome but I am not so sure if he is. That is your decision to make.”

“I suppose he can come, but he better not try anything,” I replied. I then looked at Collin and Sam. “I suppose you’ll meet your father then.” Looking back to my father, I said, “Come back quickly its time this happened.”

Zelphar nodded and hurried away from my small company. He soon came back, arriving just as music floated towards us. Then a young seventy year old elf came running up towards us.

“I am sorry for interrupting; I came with my father for my little brother’s wedding. My father was aware that you have no Maid of honour,” she said, politely to me.

“Ah, so you’re related to Drannor are you?” Nuala inquired.

“Yes.”

“Join us then,” I said. I smiled at her, knowing I would have to meet my mates’ real family. That was just something I had to do. “I was going to do without one.”

My eyes looked at her in interest. There did not seem to be any real differences except for her black hair. Not many elves here had black hair. Then what really were the Cyan Elves?

Then Nuala got us all into one line and with Tiatha, took Sam, Collin and Gemma away to the hall.

Zelphar stood beside me and was smiling the whole time. Out of the four of us, my father seemed the most at ease. The new female elf stood in front of my father and I. Ashlere was behind me, holding my train. Then I heard the music change and I knew it was our turn to enter the hall.

When we reached the door of the hall, I was for only for a moment distracted by all the decorations that had been fixed in place by magic. From every part of the roof, long chains of roses and other flowers were draped throughout the room. There were many white ribbons throughout the room, one on the back of every chair.

Finally my eyes met Drannor’s he was standing under an arch covered with flowers.

Only for a few seconds was I aware of the two men who stood with Drannor, Galan Evandari and a black haired elf who had to be Drannor’s true father. This new elf seemed to have a very demanding face, and he was looking at the ground. He did not look up to meet my gaze until Drannor elbowed him in the ribs.

I did not see my mother where she was sitting in the front row or my new family or any of the guests; I only had eyes for Drannor. He came to meet us, and my father stopped shortly after, me with him. At last we met Drannor who held out his hand.

Zelphar took my hand and in a symbol as old as the world, placed it in Drannor’s. As soon as I was touching Drannor’s skin I felt safe. I had no idea why that was.

Then Zelphar followed us the rest of the way down the aisle, to stand beside Galan. I was well aware of the many eyes that rested on me, human, elf and vampire.

Things went very quickly from there on. I barely heard what the priest said, until he asked me, “Do you, Princess Gem of House Hawksong take Drannor Silverleaf as your lawful wedded husband and promise to cherish and love him as long as you both shall live?”

Confidence showed in my voice as I proclaimed, “I do.”

The priest smiled and then turned to Drannor. “Do you Lord Drannor of House Silverleaf take our Princess Gem Hawksong as your lawful wedded wife and promise to love and cherish her as long as you both shall live?”

I looked at Drannor’s face watching to see what emotion would be most dominant. He seemed to be unable to respond so I thought, What’s mine is yours, remember?

“I so,” he stammered. Then in a more certain voice that showed none of the fear I saw in his eyes a moment ago he said, “I do.”

For a moment I wondered why he seemed to nervous about being here today. He’d chosen me, like I had chosen him. This nervousness he felt did not fit in the picture. Calm down honey, no bad will happen now, I thought clearly.

The other elf said a few more words and then Drannor raised his hands and lifted the lacy veil from in front of my eyes.

Then his face came closer and he gently kissed me. it was different to normal, he was being so much more gentle. I kissed him back, I was so glad that he was finally mine and no one else’s. so many emotions rushed through my head as I did.


Chapter 15 - The Reception

When Drannor stopped kissing me, the same reality of where we were came rushing back to me. My thoughts turned to the idea of Lindan Marcos being near. Those thoughts I kept at bay, to deal with him later. That I would not forget. Not that Drannor would allow me to forget, he knew what was in my head at any given time.

Then we both turned to face the rest of the congregated elves. I was certainly smiling as all the elves stood up. Then Drannor and I turned, and started to walk down the isle between the watching elves.

As we walked, I knew that my family, plus Drannor's family, both biological and adoptive, would follow us.

When we made it to the outside of the hall that was decorated for the reception I was amazed. A huge white canvas pavilion had been erected that was filled with flowers again. I smiled, it was as I expected it would have been, having been one of the people planning it. Then again, Nuala had been the one in charge of this part.

The first thing I noticed once we were inside was the two fragrances heavy in the air as I walked. Lilac; like Drannor and there was also roses. I guessed the roses were me, Drannor had mentioned that was the flavor of my scent.

Everything was covered in white, and there was a huge space that was clear that I guess was for the dancing.

Once everyone had been seated, I knew that we had to give each other the gift we'd chosen for the other. Soon I spied the huge box that Drannor had shifted to his lap. It was almost the same size as my present.

I spotted little Elion Anarina walking towards Drannor quietly.

Gaelira had crouched a little distance away from me, her eyes watching the goings on eagerly. She saw me watching her and said, “I am not about to miss out on any of the celebrations little on. Congratulations to you both.”

“Thank you Gaelira,” I replied gratefully.

Then Drannor won my attention again by holding the box in front of my. I grasped at it with one hand and then carefully passed him the concealed sword with the other.

Hiding my mind all the while from him, I started to open the box. All the elves were watching waiting to see what we'd given each other. At last I had it open.

In front of me was a brand new sword. My eyes widened as I examined it.

The handle was made of large, smooth interlocking white scales. As I ran my hand over them, I knew they were Gaelira's. The pommel was made up of a huge white diamond the diameter of my fist.

The sheath was a brilliant ginger colour, and very finely constructed. It was smooth and cold, hard as leather but certainly looked fragile.

Then I carefully drew the sword from its sheath, very carefully. I was certainly amazed as a line of beautiful sparkling white stones were embellished down the center of the curved cream blade.

The curved hilt was sky blue and the middle of it was leaf shaped.

I was at a complete loss for words as Drannor suddenly leaned over and kissed my cheek softly.

"This is what you kept hidden from me, is it?" he muttered softly.

I nodded, only too pleased to have been successful. "You were not so able to hide this from me. I knew what I was getting from you."

Drannor's eyes darkened at my words significantly. Then he asked, "What will you call it?"

I thought for a short time. It was a beautiful sword, and I hoped to only kill in order to keep the peace. Then I had its name. Gently resting my hand on the handle, I muttered a brief spell.

A sky blue lightning bolt shaped rune appeared. With the same spell I etched more runes into the hilt. The lightning bolt stood for Corellon. The runes on the finely curved hilt said, Keeper of the Peace. For that was what it would be.

"Very nice," Drannor complemented me, reading my handy work. He showed me his sword. It had the silver diamond rune on its handle: Vaeril. On the hilt I read: Flame of the Night.

I giggled at the name, it would be unexpected by the humans. "Very nice," I quoted him.

After a wonderful meal and cake; it was time to dance. The first song would be purely for our customary first dance. It was a good thing we were both naturally born dancers. For three minutes we pun around on the dance floor, everyone looking on.

Then we stopped and Zelphar came to take my hand.

"Did I mention how beautiful you look, my daughter?" he asked as he spun me around.

"No, but thank you father," I replied, smiling. I wished that dance lasted longer but alas it came to an end too quickly.

Then Galan came over to dance with me. "Welcome to the family Gem," he said, tone polite.

"No other family I'd ever join Galan," I informed him. "I already was part of your family anyway, Nuala is my aunt."

Then the third dance came to an end. Five more dances came to an end and I found myself face to face with Lindan Marcos.

"Might I dance with you?" he asked.

"You are one of my guests, so yes," I replied, taking his hand.

For a little bit we simply danced and then I asked, "Why did you really come today?"

This I truly wondered about. I knew he did not just come for mere celebrations. That much I knew was not in his nature.

"I wanted to see what you look like, as it has been more than a decade since I last saw you."

"Back then I was only a child. Now I am almost fully grown up," I replied. "Surely you have other motives?" I seriously doubted that he would simply have come to see how I looked.

"That was the only reason," Marcos replied.

Over his shoulder I saw Drannor's eyes darken. I knew that meant he'd smelt a rat in Marcos thoughts. "I know you're lying Lindan Marcos."

Luckily for him the song ended and a tall male elf came walking towards me. Drannor was by his side. Marcos moved off without a word. This new, tall elf looked extremely uncomfortable being here.

I guessed that it was Drannor's true father. Then Drannor was beside me and had reached for my hand, which I willingly let him have.

"Drannor," I purred. I was happy to be with him again, I always seemed at peace with him.

"I would like you to meet someone," he said in my ear. "This is my father, Wistari Silverleaf." He then looked at the tall black haired, blue eyed elf. "Father, might I introduce Gem Hawksong?"

"It is an honour to meet you, Princess," Wistari said in a very quiet voice.

"It is a pleasure to meet you too Wistari," I replied courteously. For indeed it was. Though his voice seemed different to the one I'd heard back in my room. His breath entranced me, like the leech back in Ciarbera's had.

Also I knew that Drannor had taken on my surname, he would not answer to his father's name any more. He liked Hawksong much more.

So this man was meant to be a king as well, but he did not seem that way. It was certainly obvious that he was not the one of royal birth.

"Believe it or not, we are related. My mate is a distant relation to your grandfather Sudryl," Wistari said.

"Well, that I never anticipated," I muttered. Indeed, the idea seemed strange to me, it seemed I was not really joining a new family at all.

The celebrations lasted long into the night. My mother and father had moved all their personal belongings out of my tree, so Drannor could move in. That was their gift to us both.

When everyone finally left, Drannor scooped me up into his arms and carried me away towards our tree. When we reached the closed door, I reached out with one hand and opened it.

He walked through the house, until we reached the bedroom. There would be no more action tonight, we were exhausted.

"I'll just go say goodnight to Saryla and Cohnal. I'll be right back," I said, kissing him. By those names, he knew I meant Sam and Collin.

"Hurry back," he said, setting me on my feet upright. In less than a minute I was back by his side.

I smiled and gave him another kiss. He returned the kiss, this time around.

Quickly I got changed into my pajamas and scooted into my side of the huge bed that was now mine. I had given my old room to Sam.

Drannor joined me a moment later and I drifted off to sleep with my head on his shoulders. I felt very comfortable like that for some reason.

My dreams were very pleasant that night. Mainly I simply went about storing my memories carefully in my head. That way I would never forget today, in the rest of eternity. For that could possibly be how long I had to spend with my husband. It was good that Drannor had agreed to join my family.

With those memories fresh in my head, I drifted off into oblivion.


Chapter 16

When I woke up the day after my wedding I smiled as I rolled over in my bed to look at Drannor.

He was just waking up and his eyes were already on me. That was sort of surprising for me.

“Good morning,” I sighed. We had a whole week to be unaccompanied; Nuala was in charge of everything for the meantime. I wanted some answers and this was going to be the best time to get them.

He smiled very cheekily and then gently moved his head to kiss me. I responded but was surprised that it was not any part of my face he kissed but instead my neck.

“What are you doing?” I asked when he withdrew.

“Do not be worried darling,” he replied in a more musical voice than I remembered him having yesterday.

The unfamiliarity of his voice frightened me and I knew that he was definitely trying to hide something from me. What a shame it was I did not have his gift right now; mine was giving me no clues as to what he was.

I looked up at him, my eyes showing my sudden distrust of him. “Tell me what’s going on, Drannor,” I said. I really wanted to know. I looked more carefully at him for once seeing past that which lured me to him.

His eyes had changed. They were black as the night sky. “What’s with the eyes?”

He seemed to gulp as he read the fury in my thoughts. “I don’t know exactly what’s happened here. Something in me has changed, but I do not know what.”

Guessing that there was no way he could lie to me, I sighed. Maybe some time on my own would help to fit the puzzle pieces together. “I’m going to go for a walk, to think about this,” I said. I half smiled at him. “I’ll be back soon.”

With that I got up and went to where Axilya usually grazed. Finding him, I mounted the stallion and rode away from the town. I knew Drannor trusted me now, but I did not trust him. This whole change that had happened in him just did not seem to be right at all. How could something so sudden happen and change someone so completely? I felt like I barely even knew him, now that he was so different, though I knew it was him.

I was not one to fall for tricks that were flawless to others. No I was getting too smart for that sort of thing to work any more. Sure things were not the same with Drannor, but did I have to hold that sort of thing against him? No I did not, though it seemed so easy to do at the moment. I sighed as I rode Axilya through the woods, seeking one of the trees I used to go to when I needed to be alone. At least Drannor had not followed me. He was a bit unnerving in the fact he could listen to any one person's thoughts at any chosen time. It would only make me nervous if he came with me.

We were meant to be able to talk about these things, but I feared that if I went too far, he could hurt me. That was a very real possibility and I knew that. I loved him, but that was no reason to make him be that tempted to hurt me. He said he would never be able to hurt me, but what if he lost control? That would not be a time when he could stop himself from doing that. Plus there was the fact he needed blood to survive. Just who did he think was going to let him bite them, so he could sate his thirst? Very few would and I knew that. We were all repulsed by his kind, a well known thing..

Finding the tree I used to go to when I wanted to think, I climbed up it, letting Axilya drift if he wanted. I sat there for a long time thinking about the bizarre changes that had happened to Drannor. I looked unseeingly down at the ground, several feet below as I thought. Time flowed rather slowly as I sat in the tree, thinking to myself about the past few months. I knew one thing after sitting there for a while, the girl who'd hidden her identity from the humans had grown into a mature adult now.

When I climbed back down after dusk to the ground I found myself instantly surrounded. What is going on? I thought, preparing to protect myself. Before I could do anything to protect myself, a red beam of light collided with me.

I fell to the ground completely out of it.


Chapter 17

When I came to I found myself in the same sort of situation as what had happened in Ciarbera. Rage ripped through me when I found that out. What did he want with me this time? He’d get no more information out of me this time than he had last time.

Footsteps echoed down the passageway and the door opened. I glared in that general direction, incapable to see seeing as I was blindfolded. No one ever dared to do that to an elf, it was wrong to treat someone of my kind that way.

Someone’s hands had me then and they pushed me along into another room. Here I was forced to sit down on something made of cold iron and something was clamped around my ankles. Only when the footsteps echoed back to the door did the blindfolded vanish from my eyes.

I blinked, looking around. I was in what seemed like an old house’s bedroom. Only there was only one piece of furniture in the room and that was the unsightly cot I was sitting on.

Also the room was tiny, it just had enough room for two of these cot’s to be placed touching along side each other. That really appalled me.

Where was I and why was I here? What did the humans want from me this time? If it was nothing bad then I would give it to them no questions asked. However if it was the other way around, well, nothing would they gain from me.

There was no way that I would give any information willingly if it involved my people. No doubt, they new that already, whoever they were.

I looked down at my feet, wondering what they were restraining me with this time. At what I saw I groaned. Thick silver shackles rested there and when I used my mind to make sure if they were just metal, it bounded away from them. Something repelled my mind and I had no idea what.

One way or another they knew that I had certain strengths that the usual human, that they must have to lock up, did not. Magic repelled the magic in my head, and that enraged me.

When I woke up the next morning, was it morning? Someone had covered my eyes again. This time when someone came into the cell, I lashed out with my hands when they were close enough. There was no way I was going anywhere, blind.

To my irritation there were two people, one grabbed my arms in a vice like grip and restrained them behind my hand in their hands. While I struggled to throw them off, the other person undid my ankles. I was getting quite annoyed. “Are you both cowards?” I demanded. “Only a coward would make an elf walk sightless!”

Both humans laughed and one of the laughs chilled me to the core. “You know me, little elf,” scoffed a recognizable female voice.

The vampire from Ciarbera. How could she be here? I thought that Gaelira had killed her back then. Obviously I was wrong. This was so not good for me. I stayed quiet; I was not interested in her getting an opportunity at maiming me. This time I was aware of the massive amount of strength she had and I would not fall for the same mental tricks as I did the last time we met. I
glared in her general direction.

“So you do remember me,” laughed that musical voice that hid a threat that I was well aware of. “This time there will be no escape for you little captive!”

I scowled. She still had no idea who I was by the looks of it. However I did not let on, I knew that even now Drannor would sure be looking for me. I hoped he would get here soon; there was no way I could use the energy I needed to tell him where I was as yet.

I felt them pull me into a room and bind me up. They were laughing as they did so I knew that something was going to happen to me once again. I tensed my body as they removed that stupid blindfold again.

As soon as it was off I got one chance to glare at the vampire and then something struck my back, cutting through my tunic.

I hissed in pain, it had come with no warning and I knew what it was. So they were going to whip me again? It did not work last time and it would not work again this time if I had any say in the matter.

The whip lashed at me several times and every time I tried to dodge it moving my back. Unfortunately the way they restrained me made that very hard to do and more often than not the whip did strike me.

Was she simply hurting me because she could? Or did she have another reason for weakening me this way? One thing I knew for sure was that she was certainly planning something. Something I probably was not going to like at all.

Since I knew what she was I had found out from Barrain a few little tricks I could use in order to stop her voice from affecting me. Those skills I would try to implement against her, hopefully they would work.

If not, I was in trouble now.

I knew she probably wanted revenge for the pain she’d been in when Gaelira set her alight, but this was nothing in comparison to what I’d had happen last time. This was infuriating as I realized she had other reasons for this.

I looked up at her, remembering the other threat she had. Her eyes were vivid blood red so she was not hungry now. To a small extent that made me glad.

But also it made me wonder how long she would be before she was a threat in that way again. Surely she would not go hunt while she still had me locked away in this jail with no way to stop her.

I did not even know where I was and that concerned me. How could I tell him where to find me if I did not know?

Finally she stopped whipping and again they blindfolded me before leading me back to my cell and restraining my ankles again.

For some reason the humans were being gentle with me and I knew that she would not like that at all.

This time after they removed the blindfold I was simply left alone in the room, no one paying me any attention except to give me food and water.

Though I always ate what they gave me I was surprised they were not drugging me at all.

I was getting weaker by the day and after three days had gone past, they whipped me again. Several more days past and I spent most of the time I was alone curled in a ball, my hands around my legs, rubbing at my sore chaffing ankles.

Drannor where are you? I thought getting quite disgruntled. I was never happy now, instead I feared for my life and sorrow was abundant in me. Soon they would get information from me and I knew it.

Then someone reached out and grabbed a hold of my mind, pulling me into theirs. I scowled and struggled against them pathetically. I was infuriated that someone dared to use their mind on me.

‘Gem it’s okay, its me, Drannor,’ a male voice said. The mind was too powerful to be him and his voice sounded wrong.

My thoughts were distrustful as I snarled back at him, ‘I do not believe you. You sound like one of those filthy irrational bloodsucking leeches!’

‘That I can explain Gem. Gaelira sent me to find you. Barrain and his family are with me,’ his voice was pleading now. ‘Please believe me.’

I was fiercely against his words. ‘I don’t believe you!’

‘I don’t have time for this Gem. In a minute you’ll see me,’ he said, withdrawing from me.

I wondered what he meant by that as I rested my head on my knees, certainly obedient to my torturer’s will. Then something growled in a menacing way and I heard the soldiers yelp in shock.

Some one appeared at the door but I did not look up to see who it was. With a loud crunching sound the hard iron door was torn from its hinges and thrown away.

That sound made me look at the door. Dread filled my eyes as I recognized Drannor. The reason for that was that my captor had appeared and was moving towards my cell.

Drannor slowly made his way into the tiny room and the other vampire sprang, knocking him off balance.

“Drannor!” I shrieked in terror. I got a good look at the vampires eyes, and they were black. Thirsty. Hungry. It was obvious she longed to rip into my throat now and I knew she would.

Drannor regained his balance within seconds and was crouching, facing the vampire. “Don’t worry about me,” he said gently. “I can handle her.”

The female hissed threateningly. I knew she thought I was dinner now. Then Drannor growled. It was a loud deep sound that told me he was infuriated. To my surprise, the woman hissed at him.

“Get away from my mate,” Drannor hissed, he spoke slow enough that I heard all the words. Swiftly within seconds it seemed, he was blocking me from her.

The female sprang at Drannor and I shrieked as she collided with him. To my surprise Drannor did not even budge. Instead he just took the impact and grabbed onto her, holding her away enough that she could not bite, but also so she could not get to me.

Then Luala leapt into the room and Drannor let go of the female who was immediately tackled by Luala. That just looked wrong; Luala was so tiny in contrast to the female.

Drannor had turned his attention to me now and was moving across to me slowly. On his face was the same loving expression he’d always had when he looked at me.

If it were not for the fact my instincts were blaring at me that he was dangerous, I might not have tried to get out of reach when he reached out to me.

Also there was the fact that he was showing a side that had me completely terrified right now. Unfortunately, like Barrain and the others of his kind, Drannor was unavoidable, he moved quicker than anything I was used to.

He paused when he took in my terrified form to sniff the air. Then I saw him grimace and I wondered why. What has gotten into Drannor? He’s so different, I thought.

“Yes, I have changed a bit. I don’t have time right now to explain anything, we need to get you out of here,” he said gently. Then he closed the rest of the distance, tiny as it was between us and bent down to gently kiss me.

The instant he touched my naked skin I shivered. He was freezing cold. I winced and moved a little way away from him, which made my torn back sting. “I don’t know whether to trust you right now, Drannor.”

“I’m still the elf you married Gem. I’m just a little more durable than I was before. I need to get you out of here, but I am going to have to touch you to do it. Please let me,” he said soothingly.

I sighed and nodded slowly. Though he was the person I loved I was not sure if he was entirely in control of himself.

He did not take his eyes from my face as he slid his hands down to where the shackles were firmly around my ankles.

Then he carefully wrapped one hand around the thick shackles and tightened his grip. I watched as the metal splintered under his hand and broke away from my ankle. I gasped in shock. “I tried to lay a hand on them both with my hands and magic and both were repelled. Why should they shatter for you?”

I scowled. Then I answered my own question. “You’re like them!” The comprehension made me twist away from him in revulsion.

“I’m not going to harm you Gem. Its time we were out of here,” he said.

I nodded and he tenderly picked me up in his arms. I noticed he was being very careful, maybe he could tell that my blood had newly been spilt and he had no wish to irritate himself.

Once we were moving out of the cell, I leaned my head on his shoulder, too overcome with sleepiness to hassle about the fact he was a predator now.

He lowered his head and kissed my brow as I wrapped my arms around him so I did not fall. I shuddered at the contact but let his relaxed little kiss pass.

Then we were all moving and I noticed that the guards averted their eyes when they saw us coming, even opened doors by accident causing them to be hit over the heads for helping us escape.

I was able to get a little bit of sleep as Drannor ran with the others. It was hard to feel his footfalls, which really helped. When we stopped though, I woke up and was surprised to see a huge shape near me other than Drannor.

That woke me up. I cringed into him as the creature turned to look at me. I could barely see it in the night.

Drannor hugged me tightly to him. “Ssh, it’s Neldor,” he murmured into my hair.

I looked over and spotted the bright golden eyes watching me silently. “Neldor?” I asked tentatively.

“Yes, it is I, My Queen,” replied the wyvern. Then he looked past me at Drannor. “She’s hurt!”

“I know Neldor. This I could not stop. They hurt her before we got in there.” He sounded thoroughly chastised.

“I’m glad you came,” I said softly. I was starting to feel a little more relaxed now that I was out of those horrible stone walls.

“Of course I did,” Drannor replied, his voice gentle. Then a little hurt he added, “You called me a filthy, irrational bloodsucking leech earlier.”

Now it was my turn to feel like an idiot. “Well you do sound like one of them. Sorry about that,” I mumbled. I was certainly ashamed of my own word choice this time.

“As I have said, I have changed. Now I know why my people, the Cyan Elves, were sent away for.”

“I’ll get used to it in time.” I shifted carefully over to him and gently put one arm around him.

He shifted both his arms around me, holding me close.


Chapter 18

His eyes looked down at me and I knew he was thinking about something. I was getting hungry; very quickly I had not eaten in a few days now.

“What have they done to you?” he asked and I could tell he was a little shocked by how I looked to him. His hands were lightly moving over my back, I knew he could feel all the places I had been whipped, bruised and everything else.

“It’s easier if I just show you,” I replied, shivering at his icy skin. I really did not want to describe it to him, the thought of it made me sick.

“Alright then,” he replied. “What ever makes you happy dear.”

“I’ll give you two somewhere private away from the others,” Neldor said. He curled his body around the two of us. His wings rose to cover where his scales did not.

Knowing what it was that I was going to show him might set him off, I said a little worriedly, “I hope this won’t make you thirsty.” I knew my back was coated in blood, though it was dry, and I knew that people like Barrain always got thirty when blood had been spilt.

“I’m stronger than you think,” he replied. “I could never hurt you, Gem.”

For some reason I did not really believe that. Each and every one of them was the same when it came to blood. I was not convinced. “I don’t know about this.”

“Gem, honestly, I won’t hurt you,” he replied, almost frustrated. “You’ve always trusted me, why not now?”

Whether it was at me or not I had no way of knowing, but in a way I felt sorry for him. Then I informed him, “That was before I knew what you really are! You know I only know what my parents have taught me of your people.”

“Gem, please, I know you’ve heard badly of my people, but really, I have scarcely changed since you last saw me,” Drannor told me. “Please, trust me, when I say I won’t harm you.”

I fell quiet, thinking about this. One wrong move and my life would be over. However pain was something I was more than used to now. Not that that had anything to do with it.

He had said he would not deliberately mar me, and I knew he never lied to me. There was still the detail of what he was nowadays, but I guessed if he said he was in be in command of that, then I could trust his statement.

“Alright, do what you have to.” I sighed; despite the fact that I knew he could be trusted.

I shifted so that my back was to him and then lifted up the remnants of my soiled tunic.

Drannor hissed in fury and I turned my head to look at him as he gently reached out to touch one of the cuts.

I hissed at his touch but for a different reason as his hiss was for. He was so cold it was almost painful on my torn skin.

“Ssh, Gem, let me take care of these,” he murmured sympathetically.

“Can you actually trust yourself around my blood?” I asked apprehensively. I knew that this must be a struggle for him.

“I’m stronger than you give me credit for. Your blood does not inconvenience me,” he said, trying to comfort me. “Stay here.”

I saw him leave through the gap that Neldor briefly made and I waited for him. While I waited I thought that since he had changed, there would be things he did not that I was not going to really like. As I thought about it, my stomach growled.

He came back in to me and I smiled as he sat down next to me. I saw that he was holding a waterskin and some food.

He passed me the food as he said, “I believe that there’s more to these than really meets the eye. It looks like me she’s put something in you without you even knowing it.

I saw him glaring at one spot on my back. It was an already half healed spot. “What is it?”

“I thought so. She’s bitten you but in a rather unusual manner. She’s actually frozen some of her own venom and gotten it into you that way. If I don’t get it out soon, it will slay you, because I know Luala destroyed her.”

“Precisely how are you going to get it out?”

He smiled at me. “The only way is really for me to bite you. Don’t worry I can make sure I only take the venom out and not any of what blood you still have.”

“You’re lucky I trust you. Is there anything you need me to do?” I’d finished eating now. The idea of him biting me was a little repulsive, but I knew I would rather it be him than one of the others.

“Come over a bit closer, Gem,” he said. I moved a bit closer and I felt his arms wrap around me gently and sit me on his lap carefully.

I could tell he was being cautious of how much strength he used to move me and I wondered why that was.

“It’s because you are so much more breakable than I am. Barely anything can hurt me, including swords and arrows. You on the other hand can be hurt by a lot of things, Gem.”

Well that answered my unspoken question, even in light of the fact he pulled it out of my head which annoyed me. “I guess that makes sense,” I replied.

Amina, I might not like his explanation but it make sense, I thought. I knew he heard that. Are you going to do what you said you were or not?

“I was letting you think about this before I did, Gem,” Drannor replied. You don’t curse very often either, he said mentally.
“I know I don’t, but seriously just get it over with,” I countered.
He sighed. He knew I was not going to let him stall for time. If something was going to kill me, I wanted it out of my body. There was no way that dead vampire would cause my death.
Then Drannor gently pulled me back into him, resting my head on his shoulder. I leaned into him, not looking at him as he slowly lowered his face down to rest his lips on my uncovered neck.
I could tell that this was not going to be simple for him, but at the moment he seemed to know what he was doing at least. His lips were touching me now and he gently kissed me. Then I heard his mind in my own, ‘You don’t know how good you smell to me. Not in the eatable way anyway.’
I managed to chuckle that one off and held absolutely still in his arms. Then his lips parted and I felt something sink into my neck swiftly.
What happened then made no sense at all.


Chapter 19
When he bit me, I was only aware of his mouth on my neck for a few seconds. Then my mind seemed to float around somewhere else entirely. Or maybe I was inside my own mind.
***
I watched as Drannor entered my mind, his eyes searching for something. He was searching for the venom he knew was running in me somewhere.
I wonder what sort of thing he is looking for, I might be able to help, I thought.
Something that does not look like it belongs, Drannor replied in my head. It was then that I noticed that there was a link running between my mind and his.
Wondering if I was able to enter his end, I wandered that way.
Go ahead. Take a look at the real me, Drannor said as I reached the other end. He seemed eager to let me really look at him and I wondered why that was at all. At his end was a glowing white door which opened at my approach.
I won’t hide anything from you, he said as I walked through the doorway. What awaited me was ever so surprising. Facing me were several doors. Where do they each lead? I asked.
The left one is of my childhood in Taror, the middle one is of some unpleasant times and when I first entered Anthatal, the last door is every moment since, Drannor replied.
It would be interesting to see what he was like as a child when I did not know him, so I floated towards the door that would show me. I reached out to open it and it swung open. Immediately I was immersed in a few memories, but only one, the one that linked this room with the next, really caught my interest.
It showed me that Drannor was out hunting in the woods alone. He was hunting for meat for his family for the winter. I watched as he stalked a deer using his eyes only on the trail.
The memory skipped forwards a bit and I could tell that he was watching what I was as well as searching me.
I saw him stopping behind a tree and saw the deer on the other side as well. I saw him release one arrow from his bow, saw it arch through the air, completely on target, and the deer actually ducked the arrow. It soared straight through where the deer’s neck had been and hit a younger elf.
I gasped. Drannor!
I know. How could I? He replied in his own head. That was not on purpose, you know that.
Fortunately for you, I do, I said. I could sense him shredding at something in me. What are you doing?
I found what I was looking for. You won’t be in my head for too much longer. Only a few more seconds. Get back in your own head for now, he replied.
I hurried back into the safety of my own head quickly. I heard him laughing as I did.

Chapter 23
It would not be long know before we moved against Lindan Marcos. I was getting ready for the fight that would either ultimately kill me, or him.
There was no other alternative for the pair of us. When we reached Nuduien and met in battle that was where our lives would meet for the last time.
There was no other thing that was possibly. With my gift I kept seeing outcomes that I did not want. My death. Drannor’s death. My race enslaved if Lindan Marcos lived.
“Do not dwell on those things,” Gaelira said, walking over to me.
“Why not? They are things that my visions have seen. I never see anything that is false,” I said.
“If you dwell on such things then you will not fight to your best. It is true you never see counterfeit things, but still, do not dwell on them,” Gaelira replied. Her voice was gentle and I knew she was right.
“It’s hard not to,” I said. “But I shall try for you.”
We started to head to where we knew that Drannor would be waiting for us with Neldor, named after one of the beech trees that he loved to climb. There was no point in impeding that meeting.
I would try and not show that I was musing over things I had seen, nor would I let him hear it in my thoughts. No point in making him worried about me.
“I will help you,” Gaelira said.
“Thank you.”
It was then that I saw the big black wyvern with the golden eyes, his back was turned, his head low to the ground, staring at Drannor
They were talking. Neither looked away from the other until I got closer. Then both looked towards me. Drannor’s eyes were on me, Neldor’s looked to Gaelira. After all, he was her younger rother.
I smiled as Drannor ran at a slower pace than his normal speed over to me and hugged me. “About time you showed up. Our armies are gathering now.”
I sighed. “Don’t remind me,” I said. I was not looking forwards to the blood that was going to be spilt very soon. My blood. Maybe Drannor’s and also the blood of the traitor. I looked forwards only to killing the human and his wyvern. There was hope there for me.
There was one thing that might cause me a little trouble. Rhothilion and Lindan Marcos both were skilled fighters. Gaelira and I while young and swifter, were less skilled in aerial combat. Actually apart from the fights we had in our days being trained, we had no experience. This was sure to be an issue,
‘We’ll manage,’ Gaelira said in my head.
‘I know,’ I replied. I loved her so much but if this really came down to a contest of skill… there was no point in finishing the thought.
We were all meeting at Adurna, I had already secured their allegiance, and the humans were willing to see their king fall. Not that that surprised me, they lived a life of poverty under his rule. Something I was not happy with.
My army would group there, and I would give my instructions. The Hawkblades came with me, and with Drannor. Another group would travel with Jhaer and Goldberg along the coastline, burning any towns to the ground that would not join us.
A third group would move along the western border and sweep east towards Nuduien. They would do the same as Jhaer’s group and they had Nuala and Ashlere with them.
We took to the air and I knew that we were going to have an easier task than the other two groups. The only town in our way was Quinahiroo. No challenge that one would be. At least not unless they had two wyvern riders with them, and that I highly doubted. It would be only too easy for Drannor and me to overpower them.
Lindan Marcos knew we would come. But I knew he was not ready for us to try anything at this moment. He was completely unprepared. He’d expected us to strike in the fall. Yet it was summer now, and we were on the move. There was no way he would be able to gather his army quick enough now. It was the perfect time to strike.
Sure defeating him would not be the easiest of things I had had to do in my life, but I knew he had to have a weakness.
As we flew, Gaelira and I talked.
“My father fought Rhothilion, remember?” she started.
“Yes and did not manage to kill him. Instead he himself died, taking my father with him,” I replied. “Not easy to forget that.”
“Yet when I meet him in the sky it will be an even more deadly battle. We are enemies, because of the different types of wyverns which we both are,” Gaelira told me.
“Oh? How so?” I had not learnt of the different types that were part of the fabulous creatures that Gaelira was one of.
“Yes. Sun, dawn, dusk, moon and day wyverns.”
“Can you tell me about them?”
“Certainly.” Gaelira was silent. “Dawn wyverns are special in their own way, though they are by no means rare n Nuban. Like the sun wyverns before them, they have their own gift. Dawn wyverns have the gift of healing and are very compassionate creatures. Though they often get into arguments with their rider’s if they are indeed ridden by and elf or human, they are the best friends someone could have. Though they usually only mate within their own kind, it is not the odd thing to occasionally see one individual as the mate of the current sun wyvern. Wyverns born in this pairing are in particularly strong ad smart, they and also rare. These wyverns have several different color variations. Gold, yellow, bronze ad orange these creatures are hunted sometimes by humans for their beautiful hides. To capture one of these creatures other than being the one who is meant to ride one, is very bad luck. Strong fighters, they know how to fight well, though it is often known that they are at their strongest during dawn. They hate no other type of wyverns, but dusk wyverns sometimes get in their way and are tolerable. The eggs of dawn wyverns are a dull cream in color, with very hard shells. This is so that when someone chooses to touch one of the eggs, they have no idea what color the dawn wyvern will actually be.”
“What about the dusk wyvern?”
“Only ever green or blue in colour, these wyverns are the lords of anything that can throw a shadow. They draw their strength from shadows, and can even create clouds in order to get big shadows that will make them strong. This poses a major threat to the sun wyvern, as she needs the sunlight to be able to hold her own against one of these vicious brutes. They have been known to call clouds into being before meeting sun wyverns in battle, only to make it all the more harder for their sun needing enemy. While neither good nor bad, some of them are born plain evil.”
“Moon wyvern?”
“Moon wyverns; always lay eggs that are a steel grey. Though this is a deception as the wyvern hiding inside is always either red or purple. They are said to have a shining mysterious aurora when the moonlight touches them at night. No one can explain what this is all about, which is rather confusing for everyone. They are rather subjective when it comes to taunts about the moon, as they were once her children. If taunted, they will attack the offending wyvern. While they will not kill the offender, they will give a severe enough warning that the other wyvern will never do it again. When they die, this is where they return to, to choose a new life. While fierce creatures, the one they love will see that they are very protective and rather friendly. No other wyvern can see below this tough exterior. No one dares to try and sneak one from his already decided mate; it would mean the other’s death. They are fiercely loyal.”
“Day wyvern?”
“Day wyverns, while like the sun wyvern in the fact they can use the sun’s beauty to their advantage in battle, are not enemies of dusk wyverns. Instead their enemy is the dawn wyvern. While they will not fight to the death, the two wyvern types always stay clear of each other. They will never find mates who are dawn wyverns, because of this loathing. No one really knows why this hate is there. Contrary to their name, they are the colors of night, black, brown and grey. An odd thing and no one really knows what this happened for. Considerate of other wyvern’s feelings, they tend to stick to their own kind. Though it is not the odd occasion where a day wyvern has chosen a moon wyvern for their mate. This is starting to become very common. They are very wise and are gentle natured. They are not easy to cause a fight with, as their logical minds make this almost impossible. They have the ability to sense the evil in a wyvern before the other wyvern is aware of it themselves. Their eggs are always a brilliant blue in color, though the wyverns themselves are not.”
“What’s the last one again?” There was so much I could take in. So much I did not know about the wyverns.
“The sun wyvern.” She paused. “Sun wyverns are extremely rare. There is only ever one sun wyvern in existence in any point in time. When this one grows old, a new one in its egg will be laid. Unfortunately the hatchling never meets mother as a week before the egg hatches, the old sun wyvern dies. A sun wyvern rarely tells her mate of the fact that she has laid a sun egg. The hatchling is usually born knowing how to look after herself. Not that this is a good thing as most wyverns don’t survive as hatchlings living on their own. When a sun wyvern feels the sunlight on her scales, she is able to shine very bright. Only a dawn wyvern can look at her when she does that, any other wyvern, or any other creature for that matter would be made blind for several minutes. To ensure that a new sun wyvern is born, should she herself not be able to do it for whatever reason, she will usually allow a very close friend, a female of any wyvern kind except for dusk wyvern, to have one white egg. The sun wyvern’s have but one enemy when it comes to the other types of wyverns, and that is the dusk wyvern. Unless they are for some odd reason fathered by one, sun wyverns will fight dusk wyverns to the death upon sight. There is not a chance for any friendship between them except for that one reason. Sun wyverns are very fierce when it comes to protecting their loved one. They are also friendly and smart; they know when to run away and when not to. Never get in an argument with one as it might just be the last thing you ever do.”
“So when you lay a white egg, you know you are going to die?” I asked in shock.
“Unfortunately.” She did not seem too pleased with that thought.
“That makes no sense though. Bjart was your father, and yet, he was a dusk wyvern. You would not fight him.”
“That’s because I could never do that to my mother.” She chuckled. “He may have been one, but I did not see him as an enemy. That was never going to be possible.”
I grinned. It was good to hear that from her. I knew my wyvern had a lot of sense, though the fact she was the Sun Wyvern worried me.
'Don’t worry, I live longer than most wyverns,' she informed me.
That made me chuckle. Then I turned my attention to the ground below me. Adurna was within sight. “Let’s land!”
As soon as we had I dismounted from her. Then I whistled and my horse cantered over to me eagerly. “Haemir, Hycis, Taeron, with me!”
Drannor’s mind brushed mine. ‘And me?’
‘Stay here and keep everyone else here. It wont take much to ensure they’re still my allies.’
I saw Drannor nod.
I swung up onto my horses’ bare back and motioned for the others whose names I had called to follow me. It was strange seeing Hycis again. Everyone had thought she was dead, until she turned up with many of the elves from Taror.
I knew that if I happened to be in danger, the few elves I was taking with me would fight to keep me safe. That was their job and they knew it. Haemir in particular had that responsibility; he was the leader of my precious Hawkblades. It was only right that out of all of them he was the one to come.
Soon we reached the gates. The wooden gates were already open, admitting us in. my banner, a silver hawk flying in front of a black moon, flowed in the light breeze, the long white oak pole it was attached to held by Hycis.
We passed through and I saw many of the humans watching as we trotted through the streets. I took the lead now, I knew where to go, and the others did not. I was more than prepared for anyone who thought they could attack me.
I smiled as we trotted; I knew where the different streets led. As we got closer to the massive white hall that was home to the lord of the town, we had to slow down, as more and more humans were crowded there.
Just as we reached the open square at the other end of which the white house stood, I was surprised. The whole square was packed with people. We slowed to a walk. In the few years since I had been gone, Adurna’s population as almost tripled. I had no idea why though.
The humans made a path for us as we moved towards the hall. When we were about three quarters oof the way across I noticed that most of the human’s were female that were around us.
“Manke cael ilya I’ apanonar wanwa?” Hycis asked her surprise showing in her voice.
“To tu Lindan Marcos,” I replied. I knew it in my gut that they had been taken to serve in his army.
We when reached the white marble steps that led to the front door of the house. I could feel all the human’s eyes on me as I dismounted.
As I did, the door opened and a man entered. His brown hair was rather bushy and his grey eyes were stern. Though upon seeing me as I walked towards him, my friends behind me he stopped in his place. My eyes smiled at him and I knew that we were welcome here as long as we did not wrong. I could see it in his face.
Then when I stopped, he walked forwards, a grim smile on his face. My eyes did not leave his face as he came closer.
I knew that Haemir, Hycis and Taeron would be watching the other humans as I dismounted and walked up the steps to greet him.
“Lord Arren,” I said.
He looked surprised I knew his name.
I laughed. “I lived right under your nose for about ten years.”
He looked stunned. It had been an exertion to keep myself hidden. “Welcome to Adurna, My Lady,” he said at last. “What brings you?”
“My people march. I know that you are no longer dedicated to Lindan Marcos and I decided that here, my army would congregate,” I said, my voice was serious.
“Very well, you are forever welcome in this area, m’am,” he replied.
I smiled. “Thank you. We won’t linger too long, only until tomorrow. There is someone you should meet, while I’m here.”
Gaelira had told me it was every town’s right to meet her. After all she was the one and only sun wyvern.
He nodded.
‘Come on down, Gaelira,’ I said in my head.
An answering roar came from above. Then down she came, the sunlight glinting weakly off of my dragon. I grinned at her. There was no way that anyone could not be interested in seeing the hope she brought.
She landed nearby and turned to look at me. “I am Gaelira!” she said in a proud voice.
Lord Arren dipped his head to her. “I never thought I would meet a sun wyvern more promising. Isn’t she gorgeous,” he said. “Rhothilion stands no chance against her.”
She turned to look at him. “Thank you,” she said. “We hope the same. He’ll get no mercy from me.”
“Nor from me, Gaelira may have to exchange blows with the dusk wyvern, but I have the Rider to fight,” I added. Not that I cared in the slightest in relation to that.
“Well we won’t miss the chance to see him over thrown,” the lord said after a few moments pause. “Congregate your army here, you will have no harm come whilst you are all here.”
“Thank you.”
“Not to mention that I think it is about time that he fell. We have been too hard done by for too long.”
I nodded. “That I agree about. While I lived here, I was a good deal disappointed with the way he was treating you all. It’s as if he does not care about you.”
“That he did not. I asked him for help not long ago, orc’s have been raiding us of late,” the man replied. “No help did we get, he said we deserved the trouble they caused.”
That would explain the masses of farmers in the walls now, I thought. Gaelira growled. He had much to answer for and we both knew it.
Sure Lindan Marcos was my uncle, as he had wedded one of my mother’s sisters, Ava Berilan, but there was no family connection linking us. Never would there be either.
I turned and remounted my horse. The crowd slowly parted as we started to move off. I wanted to take a look around and see if there was anything we could do to improve this place before we marched on.
Some of the spell weavers would be helpful, I could see that. There was not much we could accomplish in one day, but I was sure we would be able to do a bit at slightest.
When I reached the army I smiled as Drannor ran to greet me.
“Ikotane?” he asked. Well?
“Lye are creoso sinome,” I replied. We are welcome here.
He nodded. My warriors started to ran out, making camp.
“I’m going into the town again, there is a person I truly wish to thank for all her kindness,” I said.
“Oh? And how do you plan on doing that? Who?”
“The lady who cared for me those not many years ago,” I replied. “I want to improve that orphanage a bit.”
“I’ll come,” he said.
I nodded. “She would probably like to meet you, as would I am sure what friends I still have who are there,” I said. Then I spotted Collin, Sam and Gemma coming over.
“Are you going to visit the orphanage?” Sam asked.
“Yeah. Want to come?” I asked. I knew they should not miss out on seeing their friends who were still there. “Only, there are not many boys and men in the town. Many have been taken by the soldiers to the army encampment.”
This time, I knew that I did not have to worry about time when it came to going into the town. We were free to come and go as we pleased, whether it was night or day. We had the gate well protected, so it was able to stay open.
We started the walk into the city and I smiled as I remembered the walls. Sure some of the humans looked out with conical eyes, but none of them would try anything. It would not take us long to disarm any one of them. Sam, and Gemma did not have their weapons, Gemma was still too youthful.
Gemma was simply with us for the reason that Tiatha was one of the healers who would have their hands full when the battle started. She wanted to help Tiatha.
I smiled as I walked, a few of the humans seemed friendly still. If their lord allowed us in the city, they would not attack any of us. Soon we reached the orphanage. As we did, a group of young children playing on the street who lived there gasped at the sight of us.
Then one darted inside, returning minute s later with Mrs. Glassby.
The human’s olive eyes looked straight towards us in surprise. “Is that you, Greta?”
I grinned at her. “Yes, but that is not my name any longer. You have no idea who you looked after for all those years.”
“Come on in and we can talk,” replied the older human. She led the way inside and I laughed as I saw several former bullies looking with terror at the long covered curled blade attached to my side, plus my powerful longbow on my back.
We moved into the dining room, where a lot of children were eating. All of them looked up as we followed Mrs. Glassby past all of them, to a table I knew was generally only hers.
More children followed us, it seemed they were only really starting their meal.
After we had all taken a seat, Gemma had run off to find her friends, she’d come later.
“So what brings you all back here?” Mrs. Glassby asked, after we’d all picked something to eat.
“We’re mobilising against Lindan Marcos.” All the children were suddenly quiet at my words. That did not stop me from continuing. “It’s time he learnt that the elves are not the blinded fools he thinks we all are.”
Drannor smiled. “He will fall; a sun wyvern has finally linked with Gem, the queen of the elves. Rhothilion has no choice but to fight her when he sees her.”
Mrs. Glassby looked confused. “Gem? Who’s that?”
I chuckled. “That was my greatest of all secrets while I was among you.” I shifted my hair so my ears were hidden. “Recognise this face?”
“Of course I do, but what has this to do with anything?”
“My identity was hidden from you the whole time. I am Queen Gem Hawksong, Sovereign of all Nuban and unquestionably higher ranked than Lindan Marcos. Gaelira Whitescales, the one and only sun wyvern is my wyvern.”
“I do remember a white wyvern in the town, but she was so small in comparison to the one seen in the square today,” Mrs. Glassby said.
“That I can understand. It was several years ago that I left here. Though I thought never to return, it seems that I had to. There is much I have been through since.” I paused. “We are only passing through and will be gone tomorrow. I hope this is not the last time you see me.”
“I hope not. It would not be something for me to remember you as someone who will be, I presume, in the heart of the fighting?”
“I will be in the fighting. Else I would not be wearing the armour which I am. Drannor and I together will be fighting. As will Collin,” I replied.
She nodded sadly. I knew she did not believe in women fighting like I did, and rightly so, she was after all, a human. “Our women do not run from battle, like you would. We exchange blows with equal strength as that of our lovers and other men,” I said. “Some of us yet, are stronger than our men.” I thought for a while on that. Maybe I should show them of the strength that I had.
“But, women should not fight,” she stuttered.
“If you want, I will show you what I am capable of,” I said. My hand stroked the white jewel in the hand grip of my sword.
Drannor smirked. “You would beat a human within seconds.” I could hear the challenge in his words.
I laughed. “Alright then, Drannor,” I said. He wanted to duel me? Then we would duel, today!
“If you would all come out to the sparring grounds, then I can show you just how strong we all really are.” Just then I heard Gaelira roar in rage. I heard her rushing over the buildings through the air, snarling. “Excuse me, for a second,” I said.
Then I darted outside just as the screaming started. Human soldiers were invading the streets and they were coming towards the orphanage. Raiding, it seemed. Collecting the remaining men.
Drannor, get out here! I thought. We can’t let this come to pass. I was not going to let them take the few boys left in the orphanage, Collin was in there.
A snarl of fury ripped from inside Drannor as he hurried to me. “Just when I happen to be thirsty,” he muttered. Then he crouched in front of me, making the townsfolk scurry indoors. He was allowed to hunt in the human lands, just not in my forest or any elves. “Not that I like the taste.”
“We can deal with that later; right now we have to stop them.” I knew he needed something to sate his thirst, usually that was me. I was not going to let him hunt something else, but he could not have me right now.
Then Collin was outside and drawing his sword. Gaelira roared, and dove once more, grabbing at the humans horses, and flinging them into the air with her legs as she swooped passed.
Then all was confusion as Drannor, Collin and I started to fight. Blasts of white light flew from my hand as I used magic, and Corellon flashed through the air, a blinding white streak.
Gradually we drove the men back to the gates where they were forced away from the town.
I stopped and looked at Drannor. His eyes were black, he needed to feed and fast. Then without a word I walked to where our tent was. He knew I would let him bite me; it was the only way I could keep him in check every now and then.
None of the humans had been killed, and no boys taken also. As I passed Haemir, I said, “Make sure no one disturbs us for the rest of the night!”
He nodded, and walked to cover the opening of the tent as we slipped in. Of course, he knew what Drannor was, but he also knew that it had to be kept a secret from everyone else. No one would trust Drannor if it was well-known that he was a vampire.
Drannor sat down and I sat next to him. I knew that what he did was not exactly painful, but I knew I could feel it. He would in no way harm me and I knew it. I trusted him.
He sighed and lifted me quietly onto his knees. I never sat there by choice when it came to this. He always had to move me himself.
Once I was there, I leaned my head on his broad shoulder.
“You sure about this?” he asked. His voice was strained but under control still. It would not be for long.
I could feel his cool breath on my jaw as he looked at me with those dark fathomless eyes. I nodded. “Of course I am. Go ahead.”
He smiled for a few seconds then turned his face away from me. I never saw his teeth change when he was going to sink his teeth into me, there was no point in him scaring me. He was never anything but gentle; he never wanted me to feel any pain.
Then I felt his lips touch my throat. He kissed me once and then I felt my skin tear. Though to many this was a repulsive thing, I was not too worried about it. After all, this was not the first time he’d bitten me. Not that I cared.
At least I knew that he knew what he was doing. Whenever he did bite me, he never let his own venom into me; he was more concentrated on only feeding from me, not killing me.
As always, several things I was aware of when he did this. For one thing, there was no pain for me. I knew he was there, I could feel his mouth nuzzling at my neck, but that was all.
He would simply take what he needed from me, nothing more. It did not seem like very long before I could feel his mouth slowly starting to move away from my neck.
This time when he kissed my neck, I felt something spray over the place he’d bitten me. I knew what he was doing; the venom in him could mend someone after they were bitten if the vampire wanted that.
I sighed as he moved to lie down on our makeshift bed. He shifted me so that I was next to him and I knew that he would not get up another time while I slept. He never did.
I guessed it was because he definitely felt more protective of me when I slept after he bit me. Only because I was to some extent weaker than before he had. I smiled at him and then yawned.
“Get some sleep,” he said.
I knew as I drifted of that Gaelira really did not approve of what I let Drannor do every so often, but it was my choice whether he did or not. She knew that.
Every time it had to happen though, Ackron typically managed to fixate her concentration on him. I knew she had more eggs coming, but not yet. She would not lay for a month or more yet.
I hoped though that she would lay them before we flew into battle. It would be bad if she fought and had not gotten them out before hand.
When I woke up the next morning, I was still conscious of Drannor being next to me. Despite the fact that he had not slept the night away, as I had, I knew that he would have been busy thinking.
He smiled as I met his gaze and said, “Let’s go see how many have made it,” he said.
I laughed and rolled out of the bed smiling. I ran my hands through my long golden hair and then followed him out of the pavilion. Haemir nodded to us, he had not let anyone in throughout the night, or whilst Drannor fed.
I smiled as I saw the many more people around. Each town had its own encampment around Adurna. My eyes widened as I took in the sheer mass of tents set up, and small campfire’s burning. Though the group from Anthatal was largest, some of the other groups were almost as big.
Then I saw Drannor’s eyes widen at one of the banners blowing in the light wind. “What is it?”
“My parents have come. Looks like my mother recovered from what ever it was that ailed her,” he said, indicating the standard that was his families. I looked over at it in curiosity.
It was the image of a green dusk dragon roaring. This I knew was a surprise. What elf would think to insult Gaelira this way? I sighed she would contain herself.
“Well, we better go greet them,” I said. I knew this would be a hard meeting for them to see me. After all my grandfather banished them, but I had lifted that exile.
“We do not have to go to them, they are almost here,” Drannor chuckled. “There is something I should show you actually, that my father once gave me in one of his rages.”
He stepped back into our tent and I followed, confused. Drannor did not turn his back to me when he slipped his tunic off of his chest. “This might alarm you,” he said.
I smiled. “Show me,” I said. I was more than used to being shocked when it came to some things. He turned his back to me. I gasped.
His back was badly scarred. Someone had thrown something that had a lot of barbs protruding from it at his back. I t looked like whatever it was had bounced back and hit him one more time before leaving him alone.
“What happened?” I asked reaching out with one hand and gently touching his back. I had had no idea that he’d had this mark all the time I had known him.

“My fathers’ sword. He hit me with it, twice. That was agony beyond anything I’ve actually gone through in my life,” Drannor replied. “Though I think you’ve gone through something just as bad.”

I knew what he referred to, the fact I’d been whipped. “Why have you never told me before now?”

“I did not know how you would react to knowing that I was marked in such a way,” Drannor replied, his voice truthful.

I sighed. “You know these changes nothing to me about you,” I said.

He smiled. “That I’m pleased of,” he said. He turned to face me and took my hand. “We better head out; my parents are in sight of the tent.”

I nodded.

“Stay close to me,” he said. “They’re not like you, but well me.”

I raised an eyebrow. Like him? Vampires? Uh oh.

“You’ll be all right. They won’t harm you if I’m this close. They’ll be able to tell that we’re together, much as my father won’t like it.”

I nodded as we exited the tent once more. Once we were outside, I stood facing him; I knew he’d tell me when they were just about to us. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me to him, softly kissing me. Then he stopped and while I was still touching him, he let me turn around away from him.

The last time I had seen Wistari seemed a very uneasy meeting. This time he seemed no different about seeing me with his son. But then again, I was not too pleased to see him myself. Then again, look what I knew he had done to my mate!

“Soora, Wistari,” Drannor said smoothly.

“Drannor,” his mother said. Her voice was gentle and kind. Her hair was brown like her son’s, and I knew she loved him more than his father did. “Is this her?” she asked. Her blue eyes turned to look at me, and I could see there was nothing more than friendship that she wanted from me.

I smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Soora,” I said.

“As it is to meet you, You Majesty.” So she knew did she about who I was? Well that could only be expected and I noticed that though she was a lot gentler in personality than Wistari, he did not even be bothered who he was seeing. His eyes were as harsh as they always were when it came to me.

With my thoughts I said, ‘We are going to have to talk about your father,’ to Drannor.

He sighed, not at my words though. “Must you really think those things around me, Wistari? You know those thoughts are really insulting!”

“I’ll think what I want, thank you. Get out of my head!” his father replied, his tone filled with anger.

I gulped as Drannor hissed. Obviously something in his fathers head was starting to infuriate him. I was certainly glad he was not thirsty. Then I looked at Wistari’s eyes and gulped.

They were black.

Soora put one hand out promptly and caught her husbands shoulder. She sighed as she looked at me and Drannor. “I’ll be back to talk later on. He needs to hunt!”

I nodded. “Go!” I did not want him trying to bite into me. I knew that meant a fight, since Drannor had unmistakably marked me as his.

The two elves hurried off, well it seemed the Soora was forcing Wistari back after a while. Once they were out of range of me, I turned to look at Drannor. “That all but turned bad!”

“Yes, and I’ll be having words with my father about that head of his. He certainly was not thinking things that I can handle when it comes to you.”

I smiled at him. “As long as they stay in his head I really do not worry about what he thinks of me.” I stretched up and kissed him. “Time to be on the move. Can you tell how many we have assembled?”

Drannor looked around at each of the camps. Then he said, “I count at least twelve thousand elves, Gem.”

“There are more of us remaining than I thought,” I said. It pleased me that so many had answered my call. Though why so many of us were left I could not understand. We’d been fighting on and off for the last ten years. I thought my army would have been greatly reduced.

“It seems we had many in training this year. More than we all thought possible. Not often do all the warriors gather together.”

Overhead I saw Gaelira winging her way towards the other wyverns. She would give them my orders and then they would take over. It was not long before they all parted, telling their riders and going to their places. Then I saw the three groups split off. One larger group stayed behind, at least five thousand warriors.

“Time!” I said. Gaelira soared up high into the air. I knew what she was doing. It was time for our challenge to be said.

Up she floated, and then she roared loudly. This was unlike the calls I usually heard when it came to any of them. It was a loud sound that said only one thing, “Rhothilion! Our time comes!”

Then she landed beside me.

“Do you think he got the message?” I asked.

“Only a fool would not realize what I meant by that,” she growled.

I laughed and my group started off.


Chapter 21

Gaelira kept close to me now that we were starting to really move into the human territory. She would not take wing, though she was awkward on her long two legs. I smiled at her as we walked; she always stayed by my side now.

We stopped for the night in a wide open area between two hills. It would be good to stop here; Ackron could effortlessly scout ahead at night time. Gaelira was of no use at night regrettably.

When the sunrise came though, she took off into the sky. She would do a quick check before we left, like the dawn wyvern’s she could use the rising sun as a camouflage.

“Nothing bad for many miles around us,” she said when she landed once more.

“Move out!” Drannor called through the last minutes of the sunrise.

Everyone mounted quickly and I laughed as we continued on. Today we would reach the wide bend in the Mirah River. There we would camp for the night; there were several patches of forest we could conceal ourselves in.

One time though that day, Gaelira said, “Wyvern incoming! No ally either!”

We all gulped and darted into the trees, hiding in them. Gaelira kept watch, she was watching the wyvern. I saw the green scales and knew what it was. If the wyvern spotted her it could only mean a fig…

Luckily, the wyvern passed right over us. Gaelira growled softly and we all continued onwards.

The sun was already setting when we heard the stream running full and strong. The sound made us all move faster, we wanted to get there.

Once we got there, a few of the elves set up camp while I walked to the river to see where the other groups were.

“Quendi a' amin Uruohtar’s,” I commanded, visualizing Jhaer and Nuala.

They appeared moments later.

“Gem,” both said.

“Ngwawa hae are lle yuuyo?” I asked.

“Wanwie Domethdura,” Nuala said. “N’uma er Eluma lye.”

“Wanwie telk,” Jhaer replied. “Two cites burned to the ground. Tel and Kheleskii.”

“No wonder it was a red dawn this morning. That was you,” I said. “How long until you both reach Nuduien? I only have Quinahiroo to deal with then I will be there. It will take me at least another three days to get there. Gaelira nearly had to fight today.”

“What!” both of the others exclaimed.

“A dusk dragon flew by. Not Rhothilion, but an emerald green like my father’s.”

“That is not good information. He obviously got your challenge,” Jhaer said. “He’s on the watch now for any elves.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that he will be. We have the upper hand now. Nuala what happened with Domethdura?”

“They are not going to send any more warriors to Lindan Marcos. They’ve barred the city; no one goes in or out. They value the fact you override Lindan Marcos. They will not be of assistance to him now.”

I nodded. “Aa' lle lema beina arauka,” I said in farewell.

They nodded and I ran back to Drannor to tell him what I had leant.

As soon as I had we moved out again, this time we would spend no time hiding. When we reached the walls, I was unsurprised to see they were shut.

I sighed. It would be a gory battle this time. “Shall we, Gaelira?” I asked.

She crouched. She knew what I meant. We would have to utterly obliterate this one. Haemir leapt up onto Ackron, as Drannor mounted Neldor.

Then Gaelira was soaring towards the town, her body buzzing with liveliness from the sunshine. Despite the fact that she was followed by a twosome of moon dragons, they trusted her.

This town would fall and fast.

Down we went, and Gaelira, aimed straight for the huge house in the center that could only be where the Lord lived. She roared. Then she was floating in the air, ripping at the roof with her legs, tearing it to pieces. As soon as we saw the humans watching her in fear she snarled.

“You brought this upon yourselves by barring your gates against us,” I called to them. Then Ackron reared back his head ad Gaelira flew out of the way as black flames torched the buildings closest to us.

Her head went back and white fire flowed from her jaws. Together she and Ackron set the town alight.

I felt sorry for the people there.

“They chose this fate, remember that, Gem,” Gaelira said sympathetically.

“The children did not,” I replied in her head. I did not like the thoughts I was having. As she finished setting the buildings on fire, we saw our army on the move once more. Neldor remained to help finish the job while Ackron flew ahead to guide our people to Nuduien.

I saw the understanding on Drannor’s face when he saw me.

“It’s hard to believe so many must depart this life because of one man’s mistakes,” I said as we flew to catch up swiftly, for fear that a dusk dragon see Gaelira.

“A man who will in next to no time cause any more anguish to these people,” Gaelira reminded me.

We kept on the move, though I knew that what we had done was not right. Too many children had just died and I knew that they would have been horrified. Then again, my hand had to be strict when it came to all of them.

Gaelira carried me that whole day, she was getting used to walking with me on her back, she said. After all my weight was nothing to her. This surprised me, I was not exactly as light as a feather.

To me what we’d done was murder, but I knew that the others agreed, when it came to the children and women. All the soldiers though deserved it, and to a point that was very accurate to me. They should not have been trying to force the boys to join the army; everyone had a choice in the matter. Or so it used to be in these lands. Not anymore, it seemed. This was not right for them.

That gave me yet another reason to kill the human traitor. By now he would aware of us coming, not that I cared. There was no chance that he would be able to bring together a huge group since we had obliterated several of his towns.

I knew he would find that out fairly soon, but I did not really care. He had to learn a lesson and he was going to get one from us this time. There was no room for pity now that I was actually active in his lands.

We would not stop until he was dead. He started this war and I would be the one to finish it, not him. There was no way I would lead my people into defeat, we would not fall to the humans. They came here after us and that was a good length of time ago.

If they would not abide our rules, then we would force them into submission again, no matter the cost. It was a good chance he thought it was time for a change, but I certainly disagreed, he had to be dealt with, like my mother and grandfather before me had thought.

The terrain between the Mirah River and Quinahiroo was very open. The land rose and fell, some was very rocky indeed. The horses often sent rocks moving as they found their paths down those rocky flats. Then we reached a huge valley and I knew we were almost to Quinahiroo. This was the first of three adjoining valleys. Quinahiroo was in the second one, I knew this much. This first valley was full of trees which we would camp in for the night. Then tomorrow, we would go into Quinahiroo.

The night passed us by very quickly. None of the humans in the next valley seemed to know how close we all were. Even if they did, there was no stopping the fury I was bringing against them. Not that I cared for them all right now.

We took little time to all be ready and on the move once more. There was no red dawn today, but tomorrow there may be one. I knew this city was in opposition to us, and so, we would have to obliterate it.

Just as we entered the sight of the city guards, I heard their warning bells ringing out instantly. Uproar was heard too, men rushing into position.

I sighed and Gaelira roared, taking to the skies, with Neldor and Ackron. They circled above as my army fanned out, surrounding the city. Horse after horse fanned around the city, I was just in front of the ranks they made. My stallion whinnied.

‘Now Gaelira, break down that gate!’ I said.

‘With pleasure!’ she replied. All three massive wyverns dove, Ackron and Neldor protecting Gaelira as she set about throwing her entire weight at the gate to bring it down.

It did not take very long and the group I had converged on the city. Gaelira then proceeded to take out the western, eastern and southern gates, letting in the elves stationed at those.

Magic shot from the elves. Archers took each other on. Fire torched buildings. Drannor and the others of his kind hunted.

The city was ruined within the hour.

Dawn had not even fully finished.

Now there was a red tinge to the sky and I knew it was from our attack. No one spoke as we left the ruined city to continue on.


Chapter 22
Roars rang in Nuban from the wyverns as all of the elves met in a valley not far from Nuduien.
What I was not anticipating was the news Jhaer had for me.
“We found Elanil,” she said.
“Where and how?” I exclaimed.
Goldberg snorted. “The town’s name is insignificant. She was enslaved in the town. Jhaer and I put an end to that.”
“Where is she now?”
“She’s in our tent. She was asleep when we joined you.”
I gasped. How poorly had she been treated? Elves never slept during the day. If they did, well it meant something was wrong.
She smiled at me. “Go ahead, Gem.”
I nodded and walked to where I knew her tent was. When I got there, I was capable to hear the sound of someone’s peaceful breathing as they rested.
A smile was on my face as I entered and she looked up at me. “Hello Elanil,” I said happily.
She looked at me and then finally smiled. “Gem?” she asked.
My grin widened. “Yes it’s me, little sister.”
“I suppose that since you are the Queen nowadays that our mother and father have both passed?”
She seemed used to the knowledge. “Regrettably, yes.”
I sat down on the bed beside her and smiled at her. “They were killed thanks to the man that I will with any luck destroy in two days time.”
“It’s good to know that they will be avenged.”
I chuckled. “I don’t think I’m going to let you fight. I want you to stay back here and help the healers,” I said.
“I think that is the thing I would rather be doing. Fighting is not something I am of a mind to partake in, even if it is no more than practice.”
I smiled. “I’m glad you agree, Elanil.” I noticed that the only difference between the three of us were our eyes. Mine were the same blue as the sky. Hycis had grass green eyes. Elanil had steel grey eyes, darker than our mothers. “I’ll see after the fighting is done with, alright? One way or another I will see you again. For now you need to rest, you still look very tired.”
I cared a lot for my younger sisters. For once our mother had said, “Look after your sisters; they will need you to help them one day.”
“I plan on doing just that,” Elanil said. “One thing though, are you and Hycis both wyvern riders?”
“No only I am,” I said.
“Can I meet your wyvern?” she asked in curiosity.
“Sure,” I laughed. “Come on, I’ll show you her.”
‘I look forwards to meeting your other sister, Gem’ Gaelira said in my head.
‘Of that I am glad,’ I replied back to her.
Then Elanil and I walked out to where I had left Gaelira.
She turned her long head to look at me and Elanil. Her orange eyes glowed as she looked at Elanil. “Greetings Elanil,” she said.
“Hello,” Elanil said shyly.
“Elanil, this is my sun wyvern, Ga…”
“My name is Gaelira,” Gaelira cut me off.
Elanil and I both laughed. For a few seconds Gaelira also laughed. I knew that she rarely laughed at anything, and to hear her laugh at her own words was a bit amusing. She’d laughed in a while.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Elanil Hawksong,” Gaelira continued. “You look much like your sisters and mother.”
I smiled at my dragon. She was always so scrutinizing of the others. No wonder I loved her, she was just like me. I’d noticed the same similarity between my mother and Elanil.


Chapter 23
The sky was cast into brilliant different shades of orange, intermixed with faint rays of pink when I woke up. The weather seemed good for flying as I looked over where Drannor had gotten to while I was asleep. This would be a good thing.
We would not siege Nuduien today. Instead we would scout the surrounding plains and set up a camp a good distance from the fighting. That way we would have a place to rest that was away from the danger.
Or so that was my plan anyway .
Drannor was all for trying to convince Lindan Marcos to come out alone, but I was not sure that he would do that. Sure I was willing to give it a shot though. But instead I said, “I think we should send a few people in to try and persuade him. He won’t come out otherwise.”
I kept my thoughts hidden that I would go in there myself. I knew Drannor could not argue with me at all. He knew that unless it was matters to do with our army, my words always over ruled his.
I knew he would argue about it, but there was no doubt that I would be able to convince him. After all, could Lindan Marcos have the courage to decline an audience with me?
After all, he would know when we meant no harm. He knew the white standard that currently blew in the breeze from the pole attached to my horses saddle meant that no blood would be spilt today. Else he’d have attacked already.
“Who would you send?” Drannor asked. He seemed curious already.
“You have things to do out here. I plan on going in, but with a small party of elves. My most well trained Hawkblades will go in with me.”
“No you are most certainly not going in there, Gem!” he argued. “You’re not going to be in safe hands in there.”
“I know that by going in I am risking that. Do you think for a second Gaelira would let them harm me before she attacks them herself?”
A deafening bellow rang out, it was Gaelira. It was not really her challenge to Rhothilion, but a word of warning to Lindan Marcos; a caution against doing anything unwise.
“I guess not,” Drannor said, knowing that what I said about my dragon was the truth. “Are you really sure he would not try anything?”
“Right now, I cannot see the future as there are too many decisions being made. So many that I cannot tell what will affect us and what won’t.” The idea did not worry me; I knew that I only had to focus on him, no matter how hard that was. It was starting to give me a headache, but that was nothing really. “You just focus on getting our soldiers ready for battle. If I fail at getting him to come out unaccompanied, then tomorrow we will attack.”
He nodded slowly.
I smiled and moved to his side, and kissed him. “I will be back here before you know it,” I said. “I shall not be an easy one for him to beat with words.”
“I know you won’t,” he sighed in defeat. “Get going. Be vigilant!”
“I will be.”
I turned and hurried out to where I knew the Hawkblades were camped. They all leapt to their feet as I approached and bowed. I chose ten of my warriors and then lead them towards the humongous city.
The gates swung open when they saw the white emblem of harmony to admit us into the city.
“Be on your lookout,” I said to my warriors as we entered. They all nodded. We made our way through the curved streets and I knew that this was no easy town to find one’s way around in. We soon got lost and I had to stop and find someone to ask. There were not many civilians on the streets, and all around us, lining the streets were soldiers.
Sighing I looked down a rather young faced human and asked, “Could you tell us the way to the keep please?”
He shuddered as I spoke and I wondered what foul words Lindan Marcos had used to describe me. A man a bit older answered, “Follow this street and do not take any of the others. It will take you directly there.”
“Thank you, very much,” I said. I smiled at him, but his eyes were carefully looking away from me.
I sighed. It was obvious that Lindan Marcos had swayed these men not to show any politeness to me. I knew Lindan Marcos hated me, but why his men as well? For a few moments I wondered why. Then I came to the conclusion that he thought I would steal men from him if they were polite.
Not likely, I had no need for humans in my forces. They were so very weak in comparison to us. I knew that and he obviously did not.
How many men are we really up against? There seems to be a lot of men here, I wondered.
Occasionally I saw a man lurking behind the soldiers, a hungry gleam in his black eyes. About ten men like this I spotted, even at one point seeing something that convinced me of what they were.
I’d seen one of these strange men, with the hungry eyes pull a soldier from the line and a little further away. The gap where the soldier had been was filled by those on either side of the gap.
The man, who’d been pulled away, was struck once in the chest by the man who took him away. The soldier fell to the ground and the other man crouched. Was he still alive, or not? There was no way to tell. Drawing the unconscious man’s neck to his mouth.
Vampires lurked behind the line. That made me worried. Was the man lifeless now? Or was he becoming one of the despicable undead human creatures?
I knew Drannor was listening to my every thought, seeing what he could gain while I was inside the city.
At last we reached the keep, where five soldiers stood waiting. Only these were no standard soldiers, they reeked of blood gone stale.
That triggered a memory. The memory of Ciarbera. They were vampires.
Then one of them smiled hungrily at me. “I never got to taste you,” she said in a soft voice.
I glowered in answer. “And in no way will you get the opportunity,” I refused her.  “Let us go by. We imply your sovereign no harm.”
The fact she was still around surprised me. She was still alive which meant that wyvern fire was not enough to kill them.
Thank you for that bit of information. I’ll converse with Barrain about that, Drannor said in my head.
Of course, I mentally replied.
“Follow me,” the same vampire answered.
I nodded snappily and my warriors dismounted. They seemed taken aback by the stench of these people. However they bravely walked past the vampires following me. If I could sand it, they would be able to.
The vampire led us through the corridors and then stopped at an elaborate door. “Here you go,” she said. This time to my surprise her voice was respectful.
She pushed the door open. Then she backed out of the doorway into our hallway.
I walked through the wooden doorway and fixed my gaze on the woman at the other end of the room. On her face there was a smile which made me instantly weary.
Behind her there was another door.
She walked to address us. We met half way through the room. “Welcome to Nuduien,” she said. “My sovereign waits for you, Ma’am.”
“Then I shall speak with him,” I replied.
“You must go on from here alone. Your warriors must remain here,” she said.
“Ah there we have a problem. I shall no leave them here,” I said.
“Go, Milady. We shall be listening,” one of the others said.
I rolled my eyes. “Very well then. So it shall be.” I walked alone after the woman, worry in my head. Why must I come to him alone? Puzzled I was about the meaning behind that. Not that I really minded the confusion. He must trust me, I thought, or is it a trap?
Be wary, Drannor stated.
I shall be, do not worry about me, I said. There was no reason for that, I was fairly sure.
Though I myself was not sure about what Lindan Marcos wanted by having me come to him alone. There was comfort in the fact that my warriors were so close at hand. Ready to defend me at a moments notice, I knew this. It was a good feeling for me to have, I realized that now.
Perhaps he wanted to talk to me. But he would not do so if I did not come in alone. That seemed unlikely, but I was more than ready if he wanted to dare to attack me. I have not come into the city without my sword. And never would I come here unarmed until he was dead. To attack me right now would be folly.
He seemed a man that would dare to do such a thing in my eyes.
At that moment I walked into the next hall. This was no real hall, instead it seemed to be a massive chamber that seemed like it was made for people to do things they liked. I spotted a few bookshelves, some tables, and many different chairs about the room. There was no order to this room, unlike all the other rooms.
Only one of the chairs was currently occupied. I knew the man that sat there, from my own memories. It was him. Lindan Marcos.
As I drew nearer, he stood up, his stormy grey eyes watching me carefully. He did not completely seem at ease, even though I was not showing any anger towards him in my stance. I wondered why that was.
Then I reached him. He bowed to me.
I raised an eyebrow. This was not expected for me to see him do. This man was no friend of mine and yet he could actually be polite? It made no sense. His dark black hair was not as shiny as when I had last seen him, at my wedding.
“You wished to speak with me?” he asked, his voice was as polite as it had been when I first met him at my wedding.
“That I did,” I replied.
“What about?” he asked. “Please, take a seat.”
I don’t plan on staying in here long, I thought. I did choose a seat though and he sat down across from me.
Careful, Gem, Drannor said.
I am being careful, I said. I know I am in the lion’s den right now. And indeed I was. If he wanted to end things, this was the perfect opportunity for him. I sighed as I watched him. “You have caused us a lot of trouble, Lindan Marcos,” I began.
“I doubt that very much. What trouble have I ever caused?” he asked.
“Two hundred years ago, you stole my grandfather’s daughter’s heart, I know you remember Ava Berilan,” I said.
“Of course I remember her. I love her. And she loved me!” he said in defiance.
“You know that doing such a thing was going to have a negative impact on you. We will never truly see her children as the rightful heirs to your throne.” He looked surprised at the mention of children. “Yes she had children. Two of them. They have been in an orphanage for sixteen years. Then for the last three years, I have looked after them.”
“Where are they now? You should not have kept them from my knowledge,” he replied, his voice showing that my words had affected him.
“They wait back in my army,” I replied. “You may come and meet them if you want, but I will not bring them to you. However they are not the only issue.”
“What else?” he asked in anger.
“You also may not realize this, or maybe you do, but one of my sisters, Elanil was found working as a slave in one of your towns. She was stolen at the time of my own birth and we have not seen her in the thirty years between then and now.” My voice was filled with a cold fury beneath the calmness that I spoke with.
“I would not dare do that. If someone else has dared to do that without my knowledge then they were very foolish and will be punished.”
“Don’t worry about punishing them. One of my riders made sure the whole town was punished. The town no longer exists.”
“That’s taking it a bit far,” he said. “There was no need to do that. I would have made them return her to you.”
“I doubt it. I know you hate my kind with a passion. You would have killed her had you found out they were hiding her from you. You know I speak the truth about the matter.”
He glowered at me. “So what if I would? No damage made.” I heard the anger in his voice. I laughed scornfully. He was close to losing his temper.
Careful, Gem, Drannor said again. Do not anger him too much.
“Had you have killed her, I would have known and this war would have ended the very day you did that to her. You should be aware of that already.” My tone was cold and threatening. For him it was a good thing that my rider had found my sister and not himself.
“Is that a threat?” he demanded. I saw the anger in his eyes. “If an elf is in my land they are mine to deal with. Even King Sudryl knows that. Not that he is around anymore; else I would not be dealing with you right now.”
I sighed. It seemed he did not realize that I would be about to punish him even though he had done nothing to her himself as yet. “I shall not be calling my army off, if that is what you are thinking,” I snarled.
He scowled. “We will meet again in battle and I know you’re aware of that,” he said. “Even if you did draw your forces away we would.”
God, this human was so pathetic. He thought that he stood a chance. “You have no idea as to the colour of my wyvern, have you?” his bullying voice was having no effect on me.
Rhothilion woke up at those words. He looked at me with one huge sparkling red eye. “Your little pathetic sun wyvern stands no chance against us, Elf Queen.”
A loud roar of protest rang out as his words echoed in my head where Gaelira heard them. Tell him that he will be punished for the insult, she said.
I looked at the dusk wyvern. “Gaelira tells me to say that you are simply an insolent bully who has nothing noble in you. Also that you have deeply offended her and that she will punish you for that when we meet in battle.”
To this the dusk dragon had nothing to say in response.
I raised an eyebrow. “No response then, Rhothilion?”
“There is no need for me to give one,” replied the wyvern.
We would teach him a thing or two when we met him in battle. Both Gaelira and I knew that in our shared mind.
“Then I shall see you in combat,” I said, standing. At sunrise blood would be shed!
He nodded and I walked swiftly from the room. Facing Collin and Sam about the identity of their father was not going to be easy, but they had the right to know now. I would tell everyone when we et together on the battleground.
***
Drannor had not been inactive while I was in the city. I could see our camp on the far side of the plain, near the entrance to the long, narrow, deep valley that his scouts had found.
I knew the humans would be focused intently on our camp now. My challenge had been issued, and the standard of peace was no longer needed.
When I reached the tents, the first person to meet me was not Drannor, but Hycis.
I smiled at her as I dismounted. “What’s up?” I asked as I walked towards my tent.
“You never have told me which wyvern is yours,” she said.
I laughed in surprise. “So I haven’t. Come and meet her then,” I said.
We walked through the tents, this time I lead my way through to where the wyverns were laying in the sun. All of them looked in my direction as I got nearer.
“I’ll call her,” I said. ‘Gaelira, come to me please.’
Every single one of them stood up as my wyvern surged to her feet. They were all so very respectful of her. Even enormous Goldberg, over a century older, bowed his orange head as she passed by.
“Yes Gem?” she asked, speaking out loud.
“I brought someone to meet you,” I answered.
Gaelira tilted her head. Waiting.
I looked at my sister. “Hycis meet my wyvern, Gaelira,” I said.
Hycis looked up at my wyvern and smiled. “An honour indeed to meet you, Gaelira.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Hycis,” Gaelira rumbled gently. She lowered her massive head to Hycis’ level.
“She is so beautiful,” Hycis said.
“We shall get to know each other after this battle is over,” Gaelira said.
“That we will,” Hycis replied, a little surprised. I knew she was surprised that Gaelira was not frightened off by the fact she was actually a vampire, like Drannor.
I smiled and we headed back to the tents. I knew that people were starting to sort out their armour as well. Mine was waiting for me in the tent Drannor and I shared.
When I reached our tent, I saw that Drannor was waiting for me. Saying goodbye to Hycis I walked into the tent and he followed me.
“You did the best you could about Lindan Marcos,” he said.
“My best was not enough,” I said. “He did not come out of his walls alone.”
“Did you really expect him to?”
“Some where in my body did? I failed to do that.” I smiled. “Not all of me thought he would though.”
“Well, I’ve talked to all the Generals. We’re all set for tomorrow no matter what he throws our way. The wyvern’s will spend the night in that valley, as will their Riders.”
“We’re not sleeping in here?” One of my eyebrows rose.
“No. and technically, I won’t be sleeping anyway.”
“I know that,” I laughed.
People were rushing around, getting ready. The camp was busy as the Uruohtars walked towards the valley.
The rest of the elves were busy late into the night.


Chapter 24
I woke earlier than dawn. Drannor felt me move in his arms and kissed me lightly.
“I hope you got a good night’s sleep,” he said.
“I did actually. It seems whenever you’re nearby, nothing bad comes of my sleep,” I said.
The other’s roused themselves just then and Drannor helped me get all my body armor on.
The armor seemed to make me realize just how close I probably was to losing him.
“Don’t fret about me. I can protect myself,” Drannor said. “I’ll make it all the way through to the end.”
I sighed as I finished with my own body armor. He had his all on within seconds.
It was time for this to start. The closer it was the more stressed I was getting. He walked with me out to where he knew we could see Nuduien, but were still confined into the valley.
My eyes narrowed as I glared towards the city, wondering where Lindan Marcos and Rhothilion were lurking. Unless he wanted us to see him as a coward after his death, then he would come out himself, and rise to my challenge.
My Uruohtar’s waited to get into the air.
In front of me, the elves waited for the humans to come forth and attack. They would wait as long as it was need for them, as a whole we would not attack them; we would wait for them to attack us.
Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to an hour as we waited. All our horses were completely still; the only part that moved was the odd tail, flicking away the irksome fly.
Then a loud noise was heard, and we could see the gates opening. Horse after horse came cantering out, the number of them never seemed to end and it seemed to take forever. I soon noticed that there were eighteen white war horses, each lined up about a hundred feet apart.
Then in groups of ten, different line of horses, bays and browns, blacks and chestnuts, cantered out to line up. As the last horses were lining up I heard a loud horn blaring from the city. It was him showing his insubordination.
“Time to get up in the sky!” I said as our own musicians started to wind their own horns.
We all mounted as one more horn rang from the city, instantly countered by our own. A line of wyvern’s started to wing their way over Lindan Marcos’ troops, waiting for us.
With a roar that clearly said your-end-has-come! Gaelira leapt into the air, the others following. Not one of the wyverns wore armour; they said if their scales could not shield them, then that was it.
I noticed that Rhothilion was slightly ahead of the line of wyverns behind him. My rider’s maneuvered themselves into the same sort of formation, Gaelira as the leader.
Our line was slightly above the enemy line. Perhaps Gaelira had planned that when we became level. I could see that Rhothilion was furious and he started to wing his way towards out greater height.
Gaelira snarled and pinned her feathery wings to her sides, dropping like a arrow soars through the sky.
“She is mine!” Rhothilion roared as a black wyvern made to block her.
Then there were wyvern’s everywhere, attacking each other.
Gaelira roared at the enemy dragon below, screaming ‘Traitor! Murderer! Oath breaker!'
'I hope you remember all that Bjart taught you about fighting,' I said gripping the saddle tightly with my knees and gripping Corellon tautly.
Rhothilion swerved up to meet us. Anything that would happen to any of the others was not of importance now. All that mattered was our enemies. Our little plan had worked perfectly. Then again, I had known it would, I'd seen it.
With a very loud noise, Gaelira and Rhothilion collided like two falling incandescent meteorites. In an instant they were grappling with each other. Then Gaelira rolled sideways to avoid Rhothilion's grabbing teeth.
I then spotted Marcos draw his sword to hack at Gaelira's leg. Filled with rage, I hefted Corellon and blocked the red blade quickly.
Then I glanced up at Marcos, realizing where I was. At his mercy I was, he could easily kill me.
'Gaelira we have to get level with him. Marcos could kill me easily if he wanted now,' I desperately told my young dragon.
In an instant, Gaelira loosed a continuous jet of white flames into Rhothilion's face. She then rolled over and darted out from beneath him. Gaelira then bellowed in pain which made me yelp as felt her pain in my own body.
Quickly glancing behind me, I saw that the big blue and red brute had Gaelira by the tail.
I quickly stood up and carefully made my way along Gaelira;s length, grabbing each of her orange spines as I went. Leaning down near the end of Gaelira's tail, I slashed at Rhotilion with my sword.
The male dragon made to dodge me, but I managed to cut his lower jaw. Rhothilion bellowed and snapped at me, as I clung to the tail spike in front of me.
The two dragons parted, trying to regain altitude. Once Gaelira levelled out, I moved carefully back to her saddle.
'Thank you,' Gaelira murmured gratefully.
'Don't thank me yet. I have not healed you yet.'
Then a blue fireball missed me by inches. Gaelira snorted and dove sharply to avoid another fireball rushing at me. Then Gaelira retaliated with a sharp backward loop that placed us behind Rhothilion.
Rhothilion did not seem fooled as to where she was. He tilted back and spiralled behind us, but ended below us.
Then a glistening blue leg appeared around Gaelira's shoulder, attacking her quickly. I did not pause to think this time. Raising Corellon I hacked at it aiming at a gap in the armour. With the strength I used, I shattered a line of scales and several tendons were severed.
Rhothilion snarled as three of his toes went limp. Then he pulled himself free and arched his neck.
'Let's get out of here,' I said, knowing what he was about to do.
Gaelira spiralled out of the way just as Rhothilion let loose a think wave of fire.
Gaelira then collided with Rhothilion attacking him savagely in a way that the long red bladed broadsword Garik could not hutr her.
Noticing that one of the red and blue wings were within my reach, I knew I could end this. By doing so, I would force Rhothilion to the ground, and Marcos would have to fight me.
Before I did, I healed Gaelira's mauled shoulder.
'Thank you,' she grunted.
'We're not finished up here yet,' I said. 'Lets see how long it takes Rhothilion to realise what will be his fate.'
'Do you think he will realise that he will die?' Gaelira seemed very optimistic.
'What makes you say that?' I asked, aiming a healing spell at her tail.
'The possibility of that to him is very low. He feels as certain as I do that he'll kill me,' Gaelira replied with a dry hiss. 'Though I am of the opinion that I’ll win.'
Gaelira dodged his grabbing talons, rolled to the right, kicking at the think twine that lashed together her foes armor.
Then I noticed Marcos draw Garrik and hack at Gaelira's head. Snarling with fury, I drew Corellon and blocked the other blade.
Gaelira loosed a continuous jet of white fire in Rhothilion face, and darted from beneath him. She screamed in agony as she did. Glancing back, I saw that Rhothilion had Gaelria by her tail.
Standing up shakily at first, I had not practiced this much in the air, I steadied myself and then strode along Gaelira's back, drew Corellon and attacked him with the blade. The male dragon's teeth were stuck in the armor that sheathed Gaelira's tail. He was unable to dodge as my aim cut his lower jaw.
Get off of her, I snarled at Rhothilion as I did so.
The dragon roared in pain and snapped his fangs at me, pulling himself free from Gaelira. In an instant, I grabbed hold of the tall tail spike in front of me as the two dragons parted from each other for a split second. As soon as Gaelira leveled out, I moved back to Gaelira saddle as quickly as I could.
“Thank you, Gem,” Gaelira said.
“I have not healed you yet,” I replied.
A blue fireball missed me by an inch. Gaelira dive sharply as another fireball shot passed where my head had been a second ago. In that quick dive, I noticed four dragons lying on the ground unmoving; from the altitude they were at I could not name them.
Then Gaelira collided with Rhothilion, slashing at him with her talons. The white dragon took some terrible knocks, and then she managed to get free with the same tactic as last time. Gem then saw Rhothilion get a grip on the muscles in Gaelira's wing, immobilising her.
The young elf felt her dragon's massive pain and was enraged by that emotion. She jumped to her feet and then leapt onto Rhothilion's head.
Noticing a fragile spot in Rhothilion's armour, where blue scales could be seen, she walked along, squatted and ready to plunge Corellon in and kill the dragon. However she did not easily get the chance to do so.
Garrik came slicing through the air and Gem blocked it with her gold wrought shield. Standing up quickly, she and Marcos exchanged blows, each trying to kill the other. Gem was amused by the skill that Marcos actually had with a sword. Now I know how my mother felt, she thought, when she fought Marcos a decade ago.
When Rhothilion's grip started to slip, Gem dodged Garrik once more, and along the blue dragon's head and leapt lightly back into the saddle.
Again the dragons smashed into each other. Gem held on, not wanting to be thrown off by Gaelira powerful struggles and attacks. Then she saw a chance to hurt Rhothilion badly. Whipping Corellon out, she slashed it upwards, sending maroon blood through the air. The sword ripped through Rhothilion's wing membrane. Rapid as she had attacked, the sword was back in its sheath. Gem inspected the damage briefly and could tell that Rhothilion would not fly again with that injury. Corellon had torn nearly the whole length of the blue andred wing and it was a wide cut. Rhothilion more or less seemed to have two wings on one side, the injury was that great.
Both the dragons landed very quickly and I leapt down, as did the human.
Then Gaelira roared, answering Rhothilion's challenge once more. I spun round to see the massive enemy dragon leap at her. Swiftly I darted out of the way, my eyes locked on Lindan Marcos. It felt good that Drannor was alive to watch this.
I met Lindan Marcos in the middle of the circle, my every sense locked onto him. My energy was barely used, which was a good thing I supposed. As he drew Garrik, I instantaneously reached down and drew Corellon, watching him as I did.
Marcos was standing there, ready for me to attack. So I did the unexpected and said, "were you ever expecting our fight to be the decider of this war?"
"I thought once that this might be the decider, yes," Lindan Marcos sneered back.
"Do you really want to lose your own life?" I asked. "Not only your own, but cost Rhothilion his?"
Marcos smirked at me in a wicked style. "No I envisioned it would be Rhothilion and I who would come out triumphant."
"You may believe that, but only our swordfight will choose who will be alive and who will pass away," I spat. "Any last words before I carry out this part of my future and slaughter you?"
Rhothilion growled and then I recoiled in pain. Gaelira and Rhothilion were still grappling, though Rhothilion and Gaelira were now missing parts of their armour. Gaelira arched her neck to use her flames, as another part of armour on her neck fell off. My neck hurt as I saw a tremendous gash on her neck.
Though I was angered to see that injury, I kept a straight face as Gaelira engulfed Rhothilion in her white flames. Rhothilion seemed unscathed when the fire stopped as she closed her maw.
"Very well," Marcos sneered. I could tell that he was discouraged that I was not reacting to his taunts.
The mind that pressed at me now became stronger and I knew it was not Collin this time. This mind was much more powerful, and it was noticeably human. Seeing Marcos leering at me, I pushed back, enveloping my mind protectively and then flinging my own mental force at him.
As I did so, I sought to overwhelm his mental defences, but it seemed he was prepared for me to do that. He seemed to fight back with a hostility that was very tough. I was conscious that Drannor would be able to have the sense of hearing our struggles as would Luala if they lived on.
Marcos soon gave up, and said, "Let us resolve this with our spar."
I snorted in amusement; this was no mere spar, but a fight to the death. He obviously thought he would be physically powerful enough that he would thrash me with a blade alone. There was no prospect of that I had defeated my mother who was five decades older than he theoretically was. More that that, elves always overpowered any humans.
So unless he had some unheard of way of getting power I would overwhelm him with no difficulty. Those thoughts having been thought, I leapt right at him. Of course he dodged my attack. I hissed and swung to face him, flawlessly balanced light on my feet.
"Are you such a coward that you'll fight only with chain mail on? Do you really think that will stop me from killing you?" I hissed.
I was hopeful that by provoking him like that, he'd make it easier for me to kill him. It was clear from his blows and parries that he was very skilled with his sword.
"I could call you the same for that reason as well. I simply wear armour for the sake of the fact that I am in battle," Lindan Marcos retorted with a smirk.
I grimaced, slashing at his ribs. "No matter it will not help you," I replied. As I fought, I sought a way to overcome his mental defences. If I could not beat him soon, Gaelira would tire. Hopefully Rhothilion was as tired as she was.
Again I danced out of Garrik's way, spinning to my left and hewing at his shoulder blade. Garrik flashed up and blocked me again. As I attacked and defended, I was always careful to keep my longbow out of his way.
Now a plan started o form around the weapon that my father had crafted himself for me. If I could get out of reach in such a way that it would be possible for me to use my longbow and hit Rhothilion with an arrow, then Lindan Marcos might just realise his danger.
For only a few seconds, I darted swiftly away from the human. Stringing my longbow and aiming an arrow vigilantly, I released the arrow as Rhothilion reared. It shot towards him, embedding itself into Rhothilion's now defenceless abdomen. All of us were shocked at the roar of fuming hurt that came as a result of my aim. 'You fiend of an elf!'
Within seconds Gaelira had roared in my defence and gouged into his belly with her tail spikes. 'How do you have the guts to call her that, oath breaker?'
I quickly returned my longbow to my back again, dodging out of Garrik's way as I did so. My pleasure at hitting the enemy dragon's one Achilles' spot was shown as I savagely returned a strike at Marcos.
To my joy some of his armour rattled under the strength of my blow. 'It must be coming loose,' I thought.
Our duel increased in speed, we moved quicker than most humans could see what was happening. More than once, I shrieked or Marcos bellowed as our swords hit somewhere that was now exposed. This did not stop our duel, I barely hurt the pain, though I knew I would later.
I could tell all of a sudden that Marcos' strength was weakening him, though mine was too. This had to end before I died of fatigue. Continuing to dodge and attack, I thought with my mind to find a simple spell that would immobilise my opponent.
Then it came to me and I smiled deviously at Lindan Marcos as I hissed the three words. "Lenora cerdan lindiaga!" Hold him still! My spell I knew would hold his arms and legs completely still. The words I had spoken were in the tongue both humans and elves used to use magic, not my own elfin tongue .
I stopped mid-strike as he froze in place. Though my spell did permit him to think, speak and thus cast his own spells.
"Looks like you are at my mercy, Lindan Marcos," I said sweetly.
He snarled and then growled, "Atem mai Elduin." Release me magic. I held my own ground and then slipped once. Within a second he was straightening and advancing on me again.
Furious now, I attacked again with a sword. It bounced off the armour on Marcos' chest before the armour at long last slid of with a ringing sound.
He countered with a similar strike that left my back and torso unguarded. Where he got the strength was palpable, Rhothilion! Then I yelped as Rhothilion tore armour from Gaelira with his talons. My back throbbed as the dragon caused me to yelp.
Our duel increased in speed again and I thought frantically of a way to outsmart the human. I then aimed a blow at his neck.
I snorted in amusement; this was no mere spar, but a fight to the death. He obviously thought he would be physically powerful enough that he would thrash me with a blade alone. There was no prospect of that I had defeated my mother who was five decades older than he theoretically was. More that that, elves always overpowered any humans.
So unless he had some unheard of way of getting power I would overwhelm him with no difficulty. Those thoughts having been thought, I leapt right at him. Of course he dodged my attack. I hissed and swung to face him, flawlessly balanced light on my feet.
I could tell all of a sudden that Marcos' strength was weakening him, though mine was too. This had to end before I died of fatigue. Continuing to dodge and attack, I thought with my mind to find a simple spell that would immobilise my opponent.
Then it came to me and I smiled deviously at Lindan Marcos as I hissed the three words. Our duel increased in speed again and I thought frantically of a way to outsmart the human. I then aimed a blow at his neck.
Casting my mind back to all the spells I'd learnt over time, I said, "Lenora cerdan lindiaga." The spell rushed at Marcos aiming to knock him over. Marcos was pushed backwards, but not to the ground. All the while, the two dragons grappled with each other.
That's helpful, he anticipated my spell's intent, I thought.
I swung Corellon at him, at the same time attacking the mind of the human. He fought back bitterly; I knew that no human could withstand an elf's full mental strength for long.When he tried in vain to attack my mind, I thrust him out so powerfully, Marcos lost his balance. Quick as lightning, I slashed at his neck. Just as there was a roar of pain from Rhothilion and Garrik was moved up to block me, I changed my aim and stabbed Marcos through the heart.
Garrik clattered to the ground as Marcos stared at the white diamond blade protruding from his chest. His eyes widened in shock as he realised I had won.
"It seems you never saw that approaching, Marcos," I said as the man fell to the earth.
Then all of a sudden he stabbed once more at me with Garrik. The blue broadsword cut through my armour and stabbed into my chest. It went right through my ribcage and I felt its side brush my heart.
Then I fell to the ground, overcome by nothingness.


Chapter 25
My vision was slightly blurry when I woke up next. What had happened? Was I still alive? There was no sword in me so that had to be a good thing right? Or was it? I groaned, I felt so tired. But how long had I been completely out of it?
Had Gaelira survived? Or was she gone as well? Something told me that someone close to me was gone, but I did not understand why or who the feeling was about. All I could hope was that it was not in reference to Drannor. That would be intolerable for me certainly.
There was no way I could live to face my whole stretched out life without him. If he was dead, then I knew I would want to die as well.
Then my vision came into focus, and I realised it was Hycis waiting for me to reawaken.
“Hycis?” I asked in confusion. Why was she here and not my mate? Where was he? Should he not be here?
“Ssh,” she said softly. “Don’t move.”
“Why?” I stammered.
“You’re still healing from that sword. I brought you here myself. I’ve been the one tending to you for the last few days.”
Why had Drannor not been healing me? That made no sense. He was always the one. This was starting to get annoying. She was avoiding the fact that I was really worried about him.
“Where is he?” I demanded. “Drannor should be the one doing what you’re doing, no offense, Hycis.”
“She sighed. “Gem, please. Just rest. You really could do with it.”
“Not till I se...”
“Or do I have to force you?” she asked. Her canine teeth changed in a subtle manner.
‘You wouldn’t dare!” I said. “You know you’re not allowed to sink your teeth into someone unless they say you can. And I have said no such thing!” I knew the rules I’d put in place on them. I knew she knew that too.
"You know, if I bit you, you would pretty much finish healing almost straight after I let go," she said.
"Drannor was different. I know that can happen with you all," I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
I explained what he'd done every time after he'd bitten me. At first she seemed repulsed by the fact I had happily let him feed from me. She understood why I did though, it had been a way for me to keep him in check. She knew that was a good thing. I smiled at her.
"I don't know that I have that much self control in me to be able to do that," she said softly. "I'm not the best at this sort of thing, you must understand that."
"Of course I do," I said. I smiled at her. "It was only an idea that I just had. I think I better sleep a bit more."
She nodded. "I'll let you have some peace. Rest sister!"
I did not take too many more days to finish healing as much as I could. Hycis never bit me, there was no need. I seemed to heal at an exceptionally good rate, she was surprised how quickly.
When I was able to get up and leave the tent though, I knew that what was outside would not be too pleasant. I had not seen Drannor in the whole amount of time since the fight. Hycis would not tell me where he was until now.
"Don't bother asking," she said, slipping back into the tent as I was about to leave it. "A scout returned and said that Neldor has been found, but Drannor's still missing. The only thing is the found Neldor and he was..."
He was what? I was confused and worried as well. i liked the big back wyvern, and so did Gaelira. He was after all, her brother. Family. Her only remaining family, other than her children, Yelowatae and Unae.
"Please, don't speak in riddles," I said. "I need to know where he is. I miss him so much."
“Thats the only problem the thing, Gem. Drannor has not been found. There is not a trace of Drannor anywhere. But Neldor was found.... dead." She looked at the ground sadly. "I've had people searching for him since you woke up a few days ago. There are a lot of dead elves out there. Though there are many humans who survived."
I gulped. "You have got to be lying."
Her face was sombre enough that I knew she was not lying to me. "I know its hard to accept, Gem, but it is the truth," she said.
Gaelira roared when she heard the news. She was up in the sky, but now she was coming back down to the ground to me. Several times I knew she was furious but also grief stricken.
I hurried out of the tent when she landed nearby. "What's wrong, Gaelira?" I was already worried about her. No matter how hard she tried to hide it, she could not for too long.
"Ackron is dead!" she said, her orange eyes wild with agony.
"Oh Gaelira," I said, feeling very sorry for her. That was most certainly a shock. Haemir Agrivar, who was the black wyvern's Uruohtar, was one of my best friends. Once he'd been more than that. Now he was gone as well? There were too many familiar faces dead now.
Who else did I know well that was dead? How many more had fallen?
I sighed. I had to find out of he really was dead or not. The best place to start would have to be where Neldor was, where ever that was. I turned to face Hycis. "Where was Neldor found?"
"I'll show you," she said. She knew that this was a hard thing for me to accept.
How could Neldor have been slain? He was such a strong fighter and Drannor was faster than any other elf. Which made him a hell of a lot quicker than a human. I also knew there were few ways he could be killed, things that I guessed the humans knew, thanks to the vampire who'd nearly killed me not so long ago.
I knew Hycis would never lie to me, though I had to see this for myself before I could really beleive her. Part of me did believe her, though some of it made no sense. Someone could not just vanish into thin air could they?
We moved on, unsure what the next we would find was. Then Gaelira hissed and sprang through the air. Then she landed and said, "cover your ears, Gem!"
As I did, I looked down at the ground before Gaelira. She roared in agony, a sound I never thought to hear from her.
Lying before the great dragon was a black dragon. Immediately I recognised the dragon before her. Ackron - Gaelira's mate - and dragon of Haemir. This discovery surprised me, since when could humans defeat Haemir? I knew he was a ferocious fighter, and almost unmatched in skill with a blade. In all his years only one person had defeated him, and that was me.
I slipped down from Gaelira, ignoring the distance from her back to the ground, and moved a little way from her to find Haemir. I found him, not far from Ackron's lifeless body. I examined him, trying to figure out how he'd died. There were no marks on his body and his armour was not in bad condition. He must have killed himself trying to heal Ackron, I thought in dismay. It was the only thing I could think of that would explain his death because his body had no damage to it.
I was still stunned by the fact he had been slain. To me it just did not seem right. Haemir did not deserve such a fate at all.
I then wandered on, on my own leaving Gaelira near Ackron; I knew she would not move from his side for a while. It did not take me long to find the next dead dragon.
"Neldor!" I yelled in pain. If Neldor was dead…. Drannor was…I could not think it. As I touched his almost cold black scales, someone's mind touched mine. I let them in, trying to hide my grief.
Gem, he fell from me when the other wyvern managed to knock him from me. I'm not sure where he is, but I do know my Rider is alive. How ever I don't know whether I'm going to make it, Neldor said.
Gaelira growled as she came back to me. “There is no chance I'm going to let you die, Neldor. You're family to me, the only family I have.”
My wyvern lowered her head as the sun still glittered faintly on her scales and gently touched his cheek. The sun seemed to shine from her onto him, and I watched as she lifted her head away. Neldor was completely healed the moment she did. He lifted his head looking at himself.
“Thank you, Gaelira,” he said in shock. Then he looked at me as he leapt to his feet. “I go to find my rider.”
He certainly looked a lot more energetic now. “Go, Neldor, and bring him back to me.”
The black wyvern nodded and then leapt into the air. I was so worried about Drannor, and he was going to have some explaining to do when he did get back here. I was not pleased with him for disappearing like he had done.
To my relief it was not long before I saw Neldor coming back in my direction. It was easy for me to spot the person sitting on his back, completely unscathed. The black wyvern lowered himself to the ground near me and my eyes instantly went towards the elf on his back.
Drannor seemed to flinch as he saw the fury in my eyes. Not something I had ever thought I would see him do these days.
“Before you even say anything Gem, know that I only disappeared because things were a little too much for me here. People would have been hurt, yourself included, had I not left.”
“Drannor, you know that I would have listened had you told me where you went. I've been more worried than you might realise while you were gone. Where were you?” I asked flatly.
“I've been taking a look at the damage the fighting has caused. A lot of people are homeless now, Gem. Many of which have children. Where I have been able to, I've helped them, but there is a lot to fix now that the war is finally after a whole century, over at last,” Drannor replied. “Plus, I have also seen that Collin and Sam are heading into Nuduien. The people there seem pleased to see them in the city's walls.”
“That's only fair, they are Lindan Marcos' children. Not that I expect to ever see them again. I did completely destroy their father after all.”
“You'll see them again. After all the Uruohtar's are bound to you. If Gaelira calls, then they have to come.” Drannor wrapped one arm around me gently. “All that's left now is to help people recover from this.”
“I suppose so.”
Things were going to be very different from now on, and I knew that.
I knew though, that no matter how difficult things were going to end up being, we would one day all stand as one nation, humans and elves alike, as one group. One day, we would not have these ridiculous past hates for each other.
With my mate, my sisters and friends nearby, how could anyone turn and say no? Plus there was also the fact that the most powerful wyvern to ever live was by my side as well. All the remaining wyverns respected her, there was no point in being against her for what she was. They would only know that I would rise up with her to teach them a lesson.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 16.03.2010

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