A War of Silver and Gold Read online

  She would have marched onto Feremony and fought the Lord there without second thought. At that moment though, as she dipped her head into the lake and opened her eyes under the water, she could think of nothing else but drowning.

  Her thoughts flinched, she flinched. There was no possibility of going into Feremony without thinking of the past. She wasn’t sentimentally bound to things, but her mentality as a living being was utterly uncontrollable.

  She kept her breath in, the algae in the bottom of the lake grasped around her legs, their slimy flesh wrapping seductively around her calves. There was a faint buzzing in her ears, it was soothing, and it made her think of nothing else but the moment there. She could have stayed down there forever. She wouldn’t have to fight in wars that were not her own. She closed her eyes and relaxed a bit more as she moved her legs, trying to remain upright.

  She pulled out of the water, her lungs filled with air as she inhaled and pushed her hair back from her face. She grunted and moved her legs away from the algae, swimming towards the bank of the lake. Ripples appeared in the silent, unmoving waters from her movements.

  Ael walked around the tree, his footsteps light, indicating the merriment in his mood. He stopped, stunned as he stood before her. His face contorted into a grimace of shock, his eyes wide opened and mouth slightly hanging. He yelped as she narrowed her eyes on him and tumbled backwards, grasping onto the bark of the tree behind him manically.

  “Don’t you have something else to do but stalk me, Ael?” Her voice stern, cold, trying to intimidate him, but that didn’t stop him from chuckling clumsily. She kept low in the water, praying that should he have to move, he wouldn’t see anything.

  “I was just passing.” His eyes gazing somewhere in the lake, flickering towards her a few times.

  “Lying, aren’t you?” She quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head.

  He opened his mouth, but closed it and laughed instead. The smile on his lips, one of terror from what she would do to him if he dared one wrong step. “It’s night and you are out here alone. I thought-”

  “I’ve told you again that you shouldn’t think about me, to begin with.”

  “I... I can’t tell that I am sorry though.” He dared a mischievous smirk to sparkle over his features.

  She set her jaw. She could play his game until she had him shocked and terrified, running away from her, screaming for his life and his sanity. Oh! Cassia was someone that never cared about humility.

  She stepped out of the lake, droplets of water cascading down her pale, scarred skin. She wore the mars proudly and it didn’t matter if his jaw dropped because of the scars or because he liked what he saw.

  The tissue that had formed over the scar close to her heart stung in the cold air, but it didn’t prevent her from leaning down and grasping her towel from the grassy ground. She should have snarled at him, but she turned around and dried herself from the water. He was stunned, as she anticipated, but he didn’t make to move around and stop looking at her like he was seeing a female for the first time in his life.

  “Don’t you have something else to do than stare at my arse, Ael?”

  He choked on his own words and had the decency to turn around. “I am sorry. I... I... that was unexpected, I am sorry.”

  She pulled her clothes on as quickly as she could. Nudity didn’t bother her, but somehow that itching in her palm couldn’t go away from the moment she stepped out of the water. Poor elf. She was tormenting him and she was cruel enough to immensely enjoy herself. Once she was properly dressed, she stepped closer to him. His blue eyes narrowing in terror, his eyebrows knitting as fear settled on his face, on the trembling hands on his sides.

  Cassia was cruel, she knew she was. But it was fun, fun to see that daring and strong elf being afraid of her, of her strength, of her name and what she was.

  She laughed and she didn’t know why. His face contorting into disbelief. It had been years till she last laughed. It was strange and somehow unknown territory to her, but it felt good and as long as it felt that way, it was alright with her. She realised somehow; that she had denied herself everything delightful and good due to her selfishness.

  Her laugh scared Ael also, he seemed even more shocked than he was when he saw her naked walking out of the lake. Her laughter heightened more, her stomach began to hurt, but it was something she couldn’t stop. It was too wonderful to see a lycan hybrid, strong as Ael to grin like an elfling discovering himself for the first time. She laughed a bit more, but he shook his head as if he didn’t believe in what he witnessed.

  “Cassia...” He shook his head again, his eyes turned to the ground. “I don’t believe what you did to her, but you can’t be her. She never laughs!”

  Her laughter died down with his words. Indeed, she had given him reason to think her heartless. A part of her believed this to be reasonable, while another part shook its head in disapproval. She had scared him away, but still, he felt and accepted the imminent attraction she tried to lock deep down inside the dark dens of her soul.

  “I can assure you I am the same as before.” She refrained from the urge to grasp on his shoulder and turn him to look at her.

  The conversation, though, changed as he spoke, “I found wolf tracks a few feet away from our camp.”

  Her eyebrows rose as she gritted her teeth. It was foolish of her to think, or even assume, he would find that new characteristics inside her quite warming or even preferable to her stern facade.

  “It’s nothing; wolves patrol these lands for the last twenty years. They are white wolves and they don’t hurt anyone, they will annoy you though until you feed them.”

  He nodded his head. “We better return back to the camp.”

  She blinked rapidly and nodded as realisation hit her hard. He was trying to do what she had told him the night before. He tried to remain away from her, even though she was in a lighter mood than usual.

  He turned around and left, leaving her alone in the clearing with her own self-loathing thoughts. A few minutes had passed before she managed to gather her thoughts back inside her traitorous mind and return back to the camp. He was already asleep. But she was too insomniac to sleep; she remained awake till dawn came.

  16

  The winds were in a state of dementia that day. The trees slapped against each other maniacally, and the springs whispered in silence as they cascaded down the forest. The birds, though, had disappeared out of thin air. It was petrifying to see the forest so silent. It felt like the trees, the springs, the birds, the beasts that roamed those lands, anticipated for something, something that lurked in the shadows and waited to snatch its victims with its cold clutches.

  Cassia’s spine straightened as their horses stepped on carbonised land and her mind swallowed the exquisite threat of being on Citadel land. Beyond her forest, which strangely sprang with life compared to the rest of the Dark side of Aethos, was an incinerated field. The few trees here and there were ablaze. They posed no leaves and no fruits, but they had blazing flames on their branches and their barks were sculptures of coal, forsaken of life.

  In Cassia’s forest there was ash and snow to cover the burnt soil, in this place there was nothing, only blackened mud and ground that once, long before she was born, was grassy and full of flowers. The soil was still burning after all those years. At the doorstep of that field little flames sprang, causing the horses to wince every now and then, their hooves heating up, but with their metal horseshoes, it felt worse against their feet.

  The air was smoky, smelling of ash and that thick scent gladly suffocated our lungs. The thick smoke was so dense that, even though the Citadel was on the other side of the field, if you didn’t know how to get there you would have lost your path. Ael took in small breaths, trying to maintain a normal rhythm.

  The ash and the thronged smoke made it hard to breathe, it burned her insides with the same, strange way an old bottle of Flamebolts did. She grasped the reins of the horse tighter between her fingertips, her knu
ckles visible from over the dark, leathery gloves she wore. If she wanted Ael to follow her inside the smoke and through the field to the Citadel, she would have to guide his horse.

  She turned to look at him and said, “Give me your reins.” He was flustered, his nostrils flaring. He struggled to keep his eyes opened from the burning air.

  “I can’t get through this.” He shook his head, he was afraid. Of course, he was, there was no other way to react in the scene before him. The field emitted a certain curious terror that pricked around the mind and toyed with his sanity.

  “If you stay out here, or even try to return back, you will be eaten by the beasts in the forest.” She set her jaw and gritted her teeth; she bit her tongue and narrowed her eyes on him. “Give. Me. The reins.”

  His fingers flexed around the ropes, he bowed his head. “I can’t do this.”

  “I’ve seen males greater than you pissing their pants in the mere view of the Citadel’s exterior.” She shook her head as she pulled her horse beside his and turned her face him. She tried to withdraw the essence of spite and anger from her glance, but it burned hot. Before he could register her moves, she grasped the reins from his hands with her right hand. “I’ve also seen males weaker than you showing a great extent of bravery, honesty and goodness.” She managed a broken smile. She tried to don him, pass him all the familiarity and sense of safety that she could.

  He didn’t speak for a moment, he looked at her, his face blank, but a smile of his own tugged on the edge of his lips. “It’s the first time you are smiling at me.”

  Her smile abandoned her as his words reached her ears. She shook her head and looked on the misty road ahead. She understood, in the end, her conscience wouldn’t let her at ease knowing she had driven him inside the terrors of the Citadel.

  “You haven’t been to the Citadel before, have you?”

  He shook his head.

  “It’s not that bad as it seems, rumours make it seem worse.”

  “You grew up in there?” His head rose as he sighed, heavily, the smoke made him cough into his hand.

  “I lived here since I was really young.” She raised her eyes to the invisible sky, trying to find the strength to continue. She had never spoken of this to another being. “In there I did many things, and though the King nurtures fear for me, the people admire and respect me more than him.” She shook her head. “I know that the Citadel’s fields are terrifying, but inside the elves live in ignorance of the rest of the world. They will greet us with flowers, gold and myrrh.” She glanced at him, her chin held high. “If you travel with me, let me pull the reins of your horse –to them- it means you are my companion and I trust you. They will present you with she-elves and will dress you in silk and satin.”

  He shook his head, chuckling to himself, his head bowed low. “It seems,” he raised his eyes to her. “It seems too ideal to be true, I think.”

  She managed another broken smile. “I have told you so many times to stop thinking about the world as long as you are with me.”

  “You take care of things, you like control.”

  She crooked an eyebrow and tilted her head. “Don’t we all?”

  He swallowed and glanced on the road ahead of us. “Lead the way, Your Majesty.”

  “Grip onto the saddle and close your eyes.”

  He did as she bid him, his features relaxed. She loosed the reins on her horse and pulled Ael’s horse with her other hand. They galloped through the smoke on the familiar path she had taken over the years. The Citadel was only opened to few Lords and Merchants of Aethos. It was the reason it didn’t make her think twice or doubting him as he confessed that he had never set foot on the Citadel.

  It scared the invaders but welcomed those their blood had cascaded against the stones on the Walls.

  When Cassia turned sixteen her grandfather had brought her before the Walls, he had given her a dagger, she lost it on a battlefield, and commanded her to slice through her palm and smear the blood over the stones. The Walls were warded with the strongest spells from the mightiest Warlocks of the Ebony Willow, from across the sea, onto the wizard land, Druidan.

  It was like the Walls created a memory for every drop of blood shed onto them. She had been scared at the beginning, but she had never shown this to the King, She had grown a fearless facade from an early age.

  As they reached the end of the path, she tempted herself to turn and run away, but she couldn’t afford to lose the King’s trust. She gritted her teeth and pulled the horses up through another road, the only road that led into the Citadel. An archaic bridge ascended hundred of meters from the earth up to the top of the mountain. She threw a look backwards at Ael who still kept his eyes closed.

  A few feet away from the Golden Gates of the Citadel, the Shadow Breakers began to pass before them, though a normal visitor to the Citadel couldn’t tell if a Breaker touched them. She was well trained to understand and track them down. The chilling feeling grasped on the edge of her spine, she shielded her mind against their assault and she prayed that so had done Ael.

  Once the chilling passed away, Cassia was certain that the Breakers were gone and the Gates would open soon and people –her people- would rush to greet them. She turned to look at Ael as she stopped the horses.

  “You can open your eyes now.” She said as he took in a hesitant breath and opened his eyes.

  The Gates screeched and moved. The Golden panels glittered against the faint light of the Sun. She heard Ael whimpering at the sight before him. The crowd was gathered a few steps away from the opened Gates. The carved runes on the gold illuminated and almost blinded them.

  The White Palace up on the top of the Hill surrounded by the White Houses of the Lords that dwelt in the Citadel, even though terrifying, they gave off the sense of something angelic no matter what monstrosities took place behind the closed doors of the King and his lecherous court. A court that only the strongest and the most determined could face without cringing in disgust or gutting themselves.

  The ash and the smoke had stopped and the heavy smell of pine wood and other trees filled the winds. It was strange; on the field behind them, there was utter havoc and foulness. Cassia knew the Citadel better than the lines of her palm; she knew its thrumming like the beating of her heart. The small roads and the little paths, the catacombs and the vaults, she knew most of the elves residing there.

  She pulled the horses inside the Walls.

  She knew the Head Cook of the Palace, she knew the baker from the bakery on the right road, in the third building to the left. She knew everything and she remembered everything, she was delighted to see that nothing had changed.

  She let go of Ael’s horse and held her chin up as she raised her hands to the sky and the people cheered. Her name, her glorious name pulsated through the crowd, her dark cloak billowing behind her, the silver crest across her chest illuminated.

  She was their saviour, their liberator, their own little form of a living goddess, their rescuer from the King.

  Her name was at the centre of the rebel lords agenda. She knew word had reached the lands the people sought a new leader, someone who had fought for them and had shared their pains. She knew the rebels in the Citadel waited carefully for her coming, she knew they anticipated for her to join them and overthrow the King.

  Cassia had many times debated whether she should aid them or not. It was strange for her to go against the one Elf who had moulded her to what she was. It was like betraying her creator, the most devoted being to her.

  She turned her head to the people, her glance silencing them as she spoke with a stentorian voice, “People of the Citadel, I –the King’s Heir- have come back to this blessed land. I am here to preserve our civilisation against our enemy. The King has summoned me and I bring with me a friend of our cause.” She stopped for a moment and pointed her right hand to Ael. “He forsook his lycan rights and become my most trusted soldier. Ael commander of the Fourth Host of Navacore.”

  They cheer
ed, and she knew that even though she hadn’t told Ael that Nadaon had accepted to make him commander of his Host, he wouldn’t mind. Her glance twisted towards Ael as she nodded her head and marched up towards the White Palace. Ael followed with his horse. She could feel his confusion radiating from him, but that didn’t matter as long as he was to remain by her side and aid her cause, her own, personal cause.

  They reached the top of the path, the doorstep of the Palace. The King stood there, on the higher step, close to the main Palace Gate. His long, blond hair spread on his shoulders, the golden crown placed on his head, heavy with all the sins he had bestowed upon himself. His features, though young due to his elvish blood, spoke of spite and malice and his blue eyes –her father’s eyes- glazed with the thousands of souls he had killed.

  Cassia and Ael dismounted their horses and walked before him. She pulled her sword from the sheath and sunk low to her one knee. She offered him her sword from her hands and lowered her head in virtual submission. Ael followed suit.

  “My King,” she said aloud, but calm and certain and full of herself, the cold facade took over her and shadowed her feelings, her true sentiments. “My Liege,” The bloodthirsty monster inside her roared with approval. “This sword, the sword of our fathers may be forever under your graceful command. Long live the King!” She felt the King’s sneering smile taking over his white, pale mouth. She raised her head and placed the point of the sword, holding it with her left hand, against the white marble. “This is Ael one of Navacore’s commanders. He shed his lycan heritage and pledged himself wholly to our cause.”

  The King’s hollow cheeks rendered him all the more vicious. His thin, pale lips shaped into a snarl. His voice –if she hadn’t known it that much- would have made her shudder. “You have done well, Ael of Navacore. Well, indeed!” He raised his hands to the air before him as if trying to mock them, mock her. “Rise from the ground and defend your blood, my children!”